Graves: Staff numbers may have to be reduced

Talk about it

More...

• On eve of Daugaard speech, legislators brace for big cuts

Like dozens of other education leaders in the state, Mitchell School District Superintendent Joe Graves is waiting to hear what Gov. Dennis Daugaard will announce in his budget speech today.

“I don’t know what he’s going to say. Everyone is saying the best is going to be zero and the worst a 10 percent cut,” Graves said Tuesday. “Anything that is not an increase is going to be tough. It’s going to mean we’re going to have to make a cut.”

A 5 percent cut in state aid to K-12 education, which former Gov. Mike Rounds proposed in December, would mean a $600,000 reduction in the Mitchell School District’s budget, Graves said.

A 10 percent cut, which has been widely rumored by state officials and the South Dakota School Board Association, would mean a $1.2 million drop in the local school district’s funding, he said.

Graves said such a significant funding drop would force him to consider reducing staffing levels, since employee costs make up 85 percent of the budget. It’s an area he would just as soon not cut, he said.

“It’s not the first place we look,” Graves said. “We try to look at other places.”

But he said administrators, teachers and classified personnel may all face reductions if Daugaard announces a deep reduction in state aid.

Graves said while he hasn’t penciled out any areas he would cut, he has sat down and thought “about where can we go” once the proposed state budget is revealed.

The district’s annual budget for the 2010 fiscal year was $14.2 million, Graves said, with 47 percent coming from state funding, 38 percent from local property taxes, 13 percent from the federal government and 2 percent from the county.

Graves said he won’t watch Daugaard’s speech today.

“I’m not going to attend or watch,” he said. “I’m going to wait for the summary afterward.”

Tags: budget cuts, news, local, education, politics