District 2 back in black

RICHMOND – Four years ago Nippersink District 2 was nearly $3 million in debt.

Like many school districts at the time, District 2 spent money that it didn’t have. It used next year’s revenue to pay this year’s bill. It risked plummeting into a financial situation so bad that the state could have taken over the district.

But school officials took it upon themselves to turn the district around, and this year their hard work became visible in the accounting books: District 2 is back in the black.

Armed with the first positive fund balance in five fiscal years, district officials feel accomplished, but not overconfident.

“Everything we do for the budget, we analyze it line by line,” said Paul Hain, district business manager. “We don’t spend it just to spend it.”

The road to financial recovery wasn’t smooth, though. Two failed referendums signaled the public’s unwillingness to bail the district out, so officials had to curtail spending.

To make ends meet, the foreign language program was eliminated. Elementary school class sizes increased so that teaching staff could be reduced, and the band and vocal music programs were scaled back.

“A lot of people look at [the debt reduction] and think, ‘Gee, what a great turnaround,’ but there was a cost,” said Mike Gullifor, a board member at the time. “We lost good teachers and staff. We lost programs. It was a very difficult process."

Nippersink Middle School parent Kay Johnson remembers the effect the budget cuts had on the schooling of her oldest daughter, Katy.

“That year when she went into fourth grade, it was tough,” said Johnson of Spring Grove. “She went from being in a class of probably 20, 22, to a class of maybe 35. That was a little nutty.”

However, Johnson said, school officials’ efforts to reverse the budget problem were evident. So, like many other parents, she decided to pitch in.

“Parents would go and help. Photocopy, take down bulletin boards,” Johnson said. “Different things so that teachers could teach and weren’t standing at the copy machine.”

Current board Vice President Sue Maurer also saw the financial crisis as an opportunity to help. She ran for school board in 2005.

“You can speak up or not complain,” Maurer said. “The debt was the reason I ran for the board.”

One of the steepest challenges was making sure that the school didn’t drop academically while fixing the budget – which they were successful in, she said.

“At the same time, our test scores have improved,” she said. “It’s a magical formula that somehow got managed.”

Some of the programs, such as band and vocal music, were reinstated as the debt reduced. It’s given parents in the district optimism and pride.

“I’m happy for the kids coming up through the district,” said Karen Burlini, a parent in the district. “If they keep managing money like they are some of the [other] programs might be reinstated.”

Nippersink District 2’s emergence from debt:

Fiscal Year 2004

$2.9 million in debt.

$584,240 issued in tax anticipation warrants (borrowing against tomorrow’s taxes to pay today’s bills).

Fiscal Year 2005

$2.3 million in debt.

$1.25 million in TAWs.

Fiscal Year 2006

$1.66 million in debt.

$916,250 in TAWs.

Fiscal Year 2007

$652,896 in debt.

No TAWs issued.

Fiscal Year 2008

$587,196 in black by June 2008.

Fiscal Year 2009

Started with balanced budget, no deficit, money in bank.

Source: Nippersink District 2