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Mathews board orders plan to cut spending
BY JORDAN COHEN
VIENNA
Mathews Board of Education voted Wednesday to direct Superintendent Lee Seiple to submit a plan to eliminate district deficit spending — a plan that could include staff reductions.
The resolution requires Seiple to submit his plan in 90 days.
Treasurer Teri Andrika projects expenditures by the end of the 2010-2011 school year to exceed revenue by $648,000. The figure worsens to more than $726,000 by summer 2012.
“We need to have [deficit spending] at zero in 2012,” said first-year board member Brian Stidham, who is also treasurer of McDonald Village schools. “I don’t want to have to go to the voters with an operating levy.”
The resolution requires Seiple to include all savings to be generated by the planned closing of Neal Middle School in 2011 and by not replacing retiring or departing staff. The resolution orders the superintendent to explain how the plan will be implemented and to include staffing reductions “if necessary,” a point Stidham indicated was a distinct possibility.
“We’re going to run out of money in 2012,” Stidham said. “I want to make certain we have curbed all the spending we can.”
Last May, Seiple disclosed a five-year forecast that projected a deficit of $3 million by 2014. Andrika, however, emphasized that Wednesday’s resolution is focused on spending and not a deficit.
“We’ll finish the next school year in the black,” the treasurer said, “but it’s the deficit spending we have to watch.”
The board’s vote on the resolution was unanimous.
As if to bear out the financial need, the board also gave final approval to place a five-year, additional, 2-mill levy for permanent improvements on the November ballot. If approved by the voters, the levy would generate more than $307,000 a year for the district.