Eight weeks after coming to town, Scott Rogers has completed one of his biggest assignments yet.
The Tooele County School District has trimmed $1.7 million from its current budget using a series of cuts and new revenue.
When Rogers assumed the superintendent post for the school district on July 1, he was handed a mandate from the school board: Cut $1.4 million from the 2013-14 budget that the board adopted two weeks earlier.
Concerned about using $2.4 million of their fund balance to cover a cost overrun for the new school year, board members thrashed out a series of proposals to deal with the budget shortfall at their June 20 meeting.
After a lengthy discussion, a proposal to reduce expenses by $1.4 million, and use $1 million of the fund balance for the 2013-14 budget, passed with a 5-2 vote.
Rogers arrived July 1. Three days later he announced that he found $666,828 in budget reductions.
As Rogers consulted with district staff, he vowed to look for cuts that would have minimal impact on classrooms.
“We are keeping programs for kids intact and not impacting student-teacher ratios or class sizes,” he said.
On July 22, Rogers announced budget reductions and revenue increases that totaled $549,645.
The second round of budget reductions brought the cumulative total of savings and additional revenue to $1.2 million.
Finally, on Aug. 21, Rogers announced a $50,000 reduction in the line items for asphalt repair and another $50,000 reduction in roofing repairs.
“That still leaves $30,000 in each of these accounts for emergencies or unforeseen needs,” he said.
With the maintenance budget looking thin, Rogers said the district is looking into a cost analysis of xeroscaping and to reduce lawn and water needs in the future.
Along with the $100,000 in cuts in asphalt and roofing projects, Rogers estimated a $321,500 savings in forecasted expenses as a result of new employee contracts.
The new $421,500 in savings brought the cumulative total of savings and new revenue to $1.7 million.
But Rogers is not done yet. He knows that if the budget stays the same, he will need to find at least another $1 million to balance next year’s budget. He will also need additional money to take the place of one-time cuts and revenue that were used to reduce expenses in the current budget.
“We can’t stop now,” he said. “We are still analyzing all budgets for more efficiencies. We will probably do this on an ongoing basis.”
