Dear Residents,
Although the economy shows signs of improvement, the entire world continues to deal with the after effects of the worst fiscal crisis in our lifetime. This crisis has devastated countries, states and local governments and now threatens to devastate school districts like Brentwood.
Over the past several years the State has steadily reduced the amount of aid to the Brentwood School District and we are now forced to operate below our funding rates of the 2008-2009 school year. Although we are projected to receive an increase in state aid of $7,654,817 for next year, it is still $3,465,845 less than Brentwood received for the 2008-2009 school year. Unfortunately, our cost of doing business has continued to rise at rates that are unsustainable. We cannot pay 2013 expenses with funding below the 2008-2009 level. It is just impossible! Brentwood receives approximately two-thirds of our budget dollars from the State. When our aid is cut, there is virtually no way to make it up especially now that we are faced with the new 2% tax levy cap. Over the past several years, we have dipped deeply into our unrestricted reserve funds to make up for the shortfall of funding from the State in order to preserve as many programs for our students as possible. Our goal was to “weather the storm” until the financial situation in the State improved enough to put the District back on the road to fiscal stability.
Unfortunately, we do not find ourselves in that situation. Currently, we are facing a budget shortage of approximately $15 million. There are several options available to us to address this shortage:
• We can seek to pierce the 2% tax levy cap (this would also require a 60% voter approval), which would mean a double digit increase to the Brentwood taxpayers at a time when the community can least afford to pay for such an increase.
• Another option is for our bargaining units to negotiate changes to their contracts and make the necessary concessions that would reduce the current deficit. We have reached out to these units and have received mixed responses. We continue to meet with several of the unions with the goal of coming to an agreement.
• The last option we have is to reduce programs and services, causing many staff members to be excessed. This is the option that we were able to avoid in large scale over the past few years through concessions from our unions that benefited our students.
Without achieving financial savings through our negotiating process, it will become necessary, however regrettable, to cut over 100 positions and excess many of our valued employees. We are required to adopt a budget shortly. The Board and I stand ready to discuss salary concessions that will save people from being excessed and enable us to continue to offer the wide range of well rounded programs that our community has come to expect and that our children deserve.
Sincerely,
Joseph C. Bond
Superintendent of Schools