Tiger
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1015 Division St. Cedar Falls, IA 50613
Cost Cuts
http://www.cedar-falls.k12.ia.us
Staff Writer
After setting a school record low round of 66 at Districts last week, junior Dave Weld and the Tigers captured sixth place at State over the weekend in Davenport. Volume 47 Edition 4
District takes steps to reign in extra 2005-06 budget expenses
costs which weren’t budgeted for, such as gas and heating. Also, this year we had a high number of students who, to Cold season is officially here, com- meet their needs, we were obligated to plete with a runny nose, watery eyes provide them with one-on-one attenand the whole bit, yet it’s hard not to tion,” Conrad said. notice the grim look on teachers’ faces Because of all of the strains on whenever anyone takes a tissue. At first finances, the superintendent, business it was commonly thought that teach- manager and the directors of elemeners had gotten particularly sensitive tary education, secondary education to students standing up in class, but it and personnel had to make some quick was soon budget decilearned sions to keep that due finances in to budget “We tried not to make reductions in staff order and c o n - and instead made reductions to equip- make sure s t r a i n t s , ment and supplies that don’t have a huge the quality of e a c h a Cedar Falls impact.” teacher is education was —Dan Conrad not comprolimited to Director of Secondary Education mised. two boxes of tissues “We tried for each to make reclassroom ductions that for an entire year. This means that had the least impact on students. We students must either bring their own tried to not make reductions in staff tissues or refrain from blowing their and instead made reductions to equipnoses. The tissue issue is just one small ment and supplies that don’t have a part of the budget concerns that the huge impact,” Conrad said. Cedar Falls Community School district Even though an effort was made to is facing. not let budget concerns affect students, The district has a budget of roughly certain reductions have required some $34 million. Most of the funds come sacrifice. from the state government and prop“The principals, secretaries and deerty taxes, with less than three percent partment chairs deserve a lot of credit. coming from the federal government. They’ve had to live without some Most of the district’s money goes things,” Conrad said. toward paying the salaries of teachers, There are several factors that affect administrators and support staff, with how much money is in the education the remainder going toward technol- budget. Cedar Falls has seen a decline ogy and other supplies. in enrollment, which greatly affects Although the budget has increased the amount of funding it receives, within the last year, it has not increased since each student that the Cedar Falls as rapidly as costs have. school district educates, brings in about “We realized in June that we had $5,000. Additionally, the state legislareal budget concerns,” Dan Conrad, ture determines the amount of funding Director of Secondary Education, said, that will go to education each year. “but we had already done our hiring for “We don’t have control over the the year, so the best thing we could do legislature or our enrollment, so we was hold off purchasing some things just have to sit back, wait and see,” for a year or two.” Conrad said. The Cedar Falls School District has Even with the budget struggles, gone $700,000 over budget. Of this there is some good news. money, $144,714 of it went to funding “We don’t have any debt, someenergy and $329,442 went to special thing that makes us very fortunate as education. a school district. We didn’t have to ask “We went over budget partially be- the taxpayers for more money,” Conrad cause of unforeseen increases in energy said.
Briana McGeough
Top Swingers
Cedar Falls has several separate dedicated funds for education. It cannot legally use money from the building fund to pay for salaries or equipment. “Sometimes people look at all of the construction we are doing and ask how we can afford it. It’s a common misconception, but if we need an equipment upgrade, our building fund doesn’t help,” Conrad said. There is a possibility that a sufficient budget increase is just over the horizon. Cedar Falls is expecting to get 50 new students next year. This would increase the overall budget by $250,000. “The first thing we will do is look at areas that we’ve reduced and put purchasing back on track. Then if we have a surplus, we will reduce class sizes to benefit students,” Conrad said. There have also been some valuable lessons learned from the creative budgeting of this year. “We know energy costs will be just as high or higher next year, so we can budget for that. We are continuing to look for areas to be efficient in,” Conrad said.
Jason Hall Photo
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Climbing to the Top National Guard visits PE classes; band receives Division I at State
Overcoming obstacles, senior Sean Ephraim and junior Brian Harrington joined other CFHS PE classmates in climbing the National Guard’s rock wall last Friday. Marching to the beat at the state marching band competition in Waterloo on Saturday, the CFHS band earned a Division I rating.
Brian Winkel Photo
2006 budget concerns After the 2005-2006 school year, the Cedar Falls School District discovered budget shortfalls in the following areas:
*Rising energy costs$92,611 over budget *Rising transportation costs for fuel$52,103 over budget *Textbook supplies$4,314 over budget *Computer hardware$13,837 over budget *Special Education Program$329,442 over budget
Anne Walsh Photo