As I’m sure you know from reading the newspaper, school districts both locally and throughout the country are making large cuts in their budgets. Fairfield is no exception. We’re still running on the operating levy approved six years ago, a levy that was promised to carry us for three years. Given the state of the economy, we are doing everything we can to stretch it even further now. That means making cuts.

It’s especially difficult in Fairfield where some cuts aren’t available to us, simply because they were never in the budget to begin with. We already spend $1,000 to $2,000 less per student than similarly sized districts around us. With 10,000 students, that $10 to $20 million – per year – that’s already been “cut” from the budget.

Add on top of that the budget – and our community’s taxes – went down another $2 million per year two years ago when the five-year permanent improvement levy expired. And we are already aware that our state funding is going down next year. Now we have to find more cuts.

I have already started, at the top. I have eliminated three administrator positions. The work didn’t go away, of course. Other people had to step in and add it to what they were already doing. Also, all of our administrators are going without pay raises this year, even the highest performing individuals.

I have already cut school and department budgets. We have not bought a school bus in three years – they cost more than $80,000 each. We are responsible for maintaining 10 large school buildings, but we are deferring all maintenance on them except for critical repairs. We are spending much less on textbooks and technology. We all know that some of these expenditures will eventually have to be made, but they will have to wait. Right now, we are looking for further cuts.

Several weeks ago I asked my entire administrative team for suggestions. Last week I went a step further and asked all of our employees for ideas. Sometimes the people closest to the action see things we don’t. Now I’d like to take yet another step and ask for your input. The schools belong to the community. If you have a good idea that would help us save money, let us know. Feel free to email me – my address is at the bottom of this column -- or call our central office at 829-6300.

A phrase we all commonly use is “tightening our belts.” The phrase understates the painful reality. Budget cuts affect employees, programs and facilities, and every one of our employees, programs and facilities is in place to deliver a high quality education to our community’s children. Our task is to make the cuts that will do the least damage.

Published in the Fairfield Echo, Feb. 11, 2010.