North Judson-San Pierre Schools To Endure Hefty Budget Cuts

North Judson-San Pierre Superintendent Lynn Johnson

The North Judson-San Pierre School Board discussed the budget outlook for the next two years and Superintendent Lynn Johnson said the school will take a major budget hit in 2012 and 2013.

“Close to one million dollars,” said Johnson. “One of the things we lost was the restoration grant and the small schools grant. Those two losses did come up to about a million dollars. Of course, it depends on enrollment. If we have an increase in enrollment, of course that will help us. There’s a lot of variables we have to look at, but right now we are looking at decreased revenue and I’m sure we’re not the only school corporation.”

On top of the budget cut, Johnson says they are also suffering from a decrease in enrollment.

“Last year we did have a decrease,” said Johnson. “We had about a 60-student decrease last year and we did look at that to see if there were some reasons that we could account to the school that we could address and there really weren’t any. Mainly, it was economical. Parents were finding jobs in other locations and so kids did move.”

Johnson added that it’s too soon to see what the board will cut in the budget.

“It’s hard to really tell right now,” Johnson said. “You need to look a variety of things so I hate to be premature with any of that. When you look at your budget, and these are projected cuts to the general fund, a majority of that is salary and benefits.”

She’s hoping that deep staffing cuts will not be a factor when deciding how to make the cuts.

“Our number one concern is what would affect students and their achievement the least, but we have to look at the big picture,” Johnson explained. “Right now, we’re just preparing the information and preparing it to share. The more that people in the community and the staff know and understand, then we can move forward.”

WKVI will be notified of when the public meetings will be set so residents can be informed as to the board’s discussions concerning the budget.