JACKSON -- Jackson County Central will have to make deep cuts and ask the Minnesota legislature for help to avoid statutory operating debt in the next year.
Superintendent Gery Arndt will ask Minnesota lawmakers to allow the district to transfer $300,000 from the school's capital outlay fund to its general fund. Capital outlay money can only be used to fund large projects like building repairs, and general fund money can be used for almost anything.
"We cannot continue to do that, because that will catch up to a school system as well," Arndt said.
Transferring the dollars would only be a temporary fix for JCC's money problems, made increasingly urgent since a request for an operating levy failed at the polls in November.
JCC is perilously close to statutory operating debt, sitting on $239,000 of debt. The state's formula decrees that if JCC is in debt more than $237,000, the school is in statutory operating debt.
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If the legislature does not allow the school to transfer its money from one fund to the other, JCC will be required to submit a plan for getting out of debt to the state. Should that plan fail, the state can take over the school's operations.
The school will also make $607,000 in cuts across the board. Although the school board has not voted, no wholesale program cuts -- like eliminating all-day, every day kindergarten or an entire sport -- are anticipated.
Closing down a school building is not currently on the table.
Instead, $386,000 in personnel cuts will be made. Athletic fee increases and program cuts will total $64,000. Transportation and busing costs will be cut $60,000.
Supplies, an area that has already been cut several times, will be cut back $12,000. Finally, the school will wait to purchase new curriculum materials for a year, a cut of $85,000.
Declining enrollment and paying for state- and federally-mandated special education programs have contributed to JCC's money crunch. In 2005, $644,671 was taken out of the school's general fund to pay for special education, and costs for special ed increase every year, Arndt said.
JCC remains the only area school without a significant operating levy. Its $50.23-per-student levy only pays for all-day kindergarten, compared to the average area operating levy of about $872. The second-lowest levy in the area, still eight times JCC's, is Pipestone Area Schools' $401 per student.
Unless the state sets per-pupil funds higher than they have in past years, the school will likely have to ask the voters for an operating levy again next year.
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"We're in a bind, no matter how we look at it," Arndt said.
