The Durango School District 9-R school board passed a revised budget for 2015-2016 that will lower deficit spending from $465,000 to at least $252,000 at its meeting Tuesday night.
“It may be even lower if we don’t spend the contingency funds,” said Superintendent Dan Snowberger.
“And the governor has introduced a supplemental budget for $24.7 million for education, which would bring us another $180,000 if approved. We won’t know for some time if that is going to happen.”
The district’s Finance Advisory Committee had reluctantly approved the larger deficit in spring 2015 and was pleased to see the significant reduction, said Andy Burns, board president and the board’s liaison to the FAC.
The board reviewed the budget for at-risk students, which includes programs such as Phoenix, Gateway to College and the GED program at the Durango Adult Education Center.
Several years ago, the board asked the administration to minimize expulsions and find ways to keep kids in school.
It costs about $11,000 per student for at-risk students compared to $6,000-plus for general students.
“It does take more money, time and patience,” said Jackie Oros, chief student advocacy officer for the district.
She gave an example of a young man who hadn’t made a lot of progress in the last couple of years but is now in classes half-days, taking classes online and getting tutoring help though La Plata Youth Services.
“Without that, he would have become a statistic,” she said. “Now, he’s going to be a completer, not in four years, but a completer.”
In a long agenda, the board also considered administering the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for Careers and College test to 10th-graders this spring.
The test would have allowed the district to compare results year to year.
Snowberger said administrative staff members had conferred with principals, and their recommendation was not to give PARCC in addition to the now state-required Practice SAT.
The board unanimously voted not to add PARCC tests for 10th-graders, which would have cost about $5,000.
In other business, the board conducted a post-mortem on its community meetings last week.
“I was surprised by two things,” Burns said. “First, by how many people were against including the charter schools in a proposed mill levy.
“And I was surprised by how high salaries and benefits polled when prioritizing.”
Snowberger said people misunderstood the purpose of the meetings.
“Some people thought we’d walk away with the two items to cut,” he said, “but this was just starting the conversation.”
The board also heard from a group of high school students about their issues of concern.
Isaac Ducker, who works on Durango High School’s newspaper, El Diablo, said the cost to print each issue is going up dramatically next year.
That’s due in large part to the fact that Ballantine Communications Inc., the owner of The Durango Herald, which formerly subsidized some of the printing costs on its presses, is no longer printing its own newspapers.
There is one obvious lack, Matthew McLaughlin said.
“After the incident with the cross country team and drugs and alcohol, there were a lot of students who wanted to get healthy,” he said. “But Durango High School doesn’t have a drug and alcohol counselor.”
Several mentioned issues with athletic and activity fees, which can add up.
Laura Razma said she has qualified for state competitions with business club DECA twice but could not afford to go.
abutler@durangoherald.com
