Ideas are plenty in Bloomington schools’ financial planning process
Over 300 submissions provided through open process

January 23, 2009

When the Bloomington Board of Education begins its 2009-10 deliberations next month, they will have no shortage of ideas to help them make decisions.

Over 300 budget reduction and revenue enhancement ideas have been submitted since the first of the year as part of the district’s Budgeting for Success process, a long-range financial planning effort to address a looming budget shortfall within the next two years, school district officials reported this week.

Superintendent Les Fujitake and school board members have said the district is not expected to receive any new funding from the state over the next two years as legislators wrestle with a $4.8 billion state deficit over the next biennium.

“While we have annually delivered balanced budgets through sound fiscal management and concerted efforts by our budget managers and principals, the economic landscape has dramatically changed,” said Fujitake. “We will continue to be tenacious advocates for the need to invest in education. However, with predictions that the state’s economic health will not recover in the near term, we must be prepared for possible sobering decisions by the state, such as, no new state funding.”

Fujitake said the Budgeting for Success process is an opportunity to update “our strategic and long-range financial plans to help prepare us for a very uncertain future.”

The budget ideas have come from students, staff, parents and community residents. They have been generated through individual submissions to an online form (www.bloomingtonschools.info/budgetingforsuccess) following staff and parent/community meetings earlier this month.

Ideas have ranged from increasing class sizes to closing schools to freezing employee salaries to raising fees, school district officials said.

The proposed ideas are currently being reviewed by a committee to determine the cost, impact on schools and the district, and a priority level. The committee – called the Budget Review Team – consists of department budget managers, representatives from each of the district’s unions, principals, parents and a member of the Citizens Financial Advisory Committee.

Parents and residents, as well as staff, will have a chance to review and comment on the prioritized list next month, when each school will host another round of meetings the week of Feb. 16-20. The Board of Education will host a series of public meetings/engagements the week of March 9-13 for additional community input, before making initial budgeting decisions by late March. The 2009-10 school year budget must be approved in June 2009.