School officials take steps to address budget cuts

Reprinted with permission from the Claremore Progress. This article originally appeared on Jun 21, 2016. Support local journalism with a subscription or a day pass for $1.99 :)

Mid-year budget adjustments are having a significant impact on the Claremore Public Schools’ general fund.

Claremore is a formula district that receives 50 percent of funding from state appropriations.

At last week’s regular school board meeting, Superintendent Mike McClaren emphasized the seriousness of the current budget situation for the district.

“I hate it. It is more important than ever to talk to our legislatures and give them this information,” said McClaren. “It will translate into possibly losing some positions and jobs next year.”

The total revenue reduction because of mid-year adjustment and cuts totals $906,317.10. Going forward, the district is implementing a hiring and spending freeze. The schools will not be purchasing any more technology for the remainder of the year and will not be purchasing paper.

“We can make reductions at this time, but it doesn’t mean it is fluff. We are shutting down any and all spending other than utilities and things that cannot be supported through a federal program,” McClaren said. “Given the gravity of the $906,317.10 reduction, that is the direction we need to move the needle — and there may be some other things we will need to address.”

Currently, the district is operating without a human resources worker in the front office, and could be required to remove a financial consultant as well in the coming year.

The district has made significant cuts in purchase orders. Only $40,986.07 has been spent. The same time last year, the school had already spent $117,777.81 from the general fund. An extended ad valorem tax deadline this year did have some impact on the district. Only 7.3 percent of 2015-2016 revenue has been received.

Also last week, McClaren presented the OneVoice Agenda and said a resolution for endorsing the agenda would be presented at the next regular school board meeting on Feb. 8.

The City of Claremore, Claremore Chamber of Commerce, Rogers County Board of County Commissioners and several other governing agencies and schools have endorsed the agenda, which lists legislative priorities — at the state and federal levels — for addressing the needs of Oklahomans.

McClaren said this is one of the few times an education item — addressing the state’s teacher shortage — has moved to the top of the annual agenda.

“Basically trying to enlist the help of any organizations like the chamber to address the revenue shortfall impacting the teacher pay schedule and teacher shortage,” McClaren said.

“I did ask if they were in support of the penny sales tax, and they said they published priorities before that came out. It was decided here recently it (the penny tax) is constitutionally sound. I am interested to see if they will endorse that,” said McClaren.

Currently, the only publicized initiative to relieve financial pressure at Oklahoma public schools is a penny tax proposed by University of Oklahoma President David Boren, formerly a governor and U.S. Senator.

He has stated he intends on collecting enough Oklahoma signatures to allow the measure to be voted on in November.