School budget looking bleak

Scott Teague
The Union-Recorder

May 15, 2008 12:49 am

— Baldwin County Schools is facing one of the toughest budget years is recent memory. State funding continues to dwindle, fuel costs are soaring and teacher salaries and benefits are up again.
School system teachers, principals and central office administrators are working together in the early stages of the budget process to determine just what will be the system’s expenses. The picture, however, is bleak.
“We’ve got utilities increasing, maintenance costs increasing, fuel prices increasing, and we’ve got the governor passing a 2.5 percent increase in teacher salaries. And, we’re doing all this with less state funding,” Saranna Charping, finance director, said.
The system likely will use the entire $500,000 budgeted for diesel fuel, despite hopes that they might come in below estimates, Charping said.
Next year’s diesel fuel costs could rise much higher, she said.
“When we started this school year, our diesel prices were $2.38 per gallon. This last bid we received this week was for $4. That’s a 68 percent increase,” Charping said. “That could be a $150,000 increase just for diesel.”
Baldwin County Schools’ school buses truck all around the county to transport students, and they average between eight to 10 miles per gallon.
With fuel prices rising to historic levels, system administrators are looking at cost saving solutions shave as much off the system’s utilities budget as they can.
“We’re very aggressive in controlling energy costs, because it has such an effect on our budget,” Brenda Phillips, purchasing and human resources director, said.
Board of Education members contracted this year with Linc Mechanical to provide heating and cooling maintenance and to install more efficient equipment and sensors.
But the system’s biggest long-term savings may come from one of the board’s most controversial decisions.
“It has always been controversial to put all these schools together, but one of the long-term savings is real-time pricing,” Phillips said.
Real-time pricing means the rate per kilowatt varies from peak to non-peak hours. Peak hours usually consist of the afternoons when temperatures rise and air conditioning units are on. The entire complex off Blandy Road is on a real-time pricing scheme with Georgia Power, with only Baldwin High School and Midway Elementary School not being on the real-time pricing scheme. The system pays as much as 12 cents per kilowatt, but the price can go lower.
As part of the system’s contract with Linc Mechanical, the heating and cooling services company will install sensors to detect whether a classroom needs air conditioning. Air will circulate when it gets too hot or when the classroom is occupied, but will remain off until the classroom is used again.
Electric costs came in at $752,000 in 2007, and likely will come in again at a similar number for 2008, Phillips said.
School board members voted Tuesday night to implement summer hours during summer school, which consist of cutting power at the schools after noon on Thursdays and all day on Fridays. The plan will save the system about $41,000.
Georgia Power rates are set to increase, however, and that could affect the school system’s utilities costs.
Natural gas prices also are rising, Charping said, and although the system uses the fuel less commonly than other sources the 25 percent expected increase will affect the budget.
Currently, principals still are working with their teachers to determine teacher salaries and benefits costs. Once those numbers are returned to Charping, then much of the work is over. As much as 88 percent of the school system’s budget comes directly from teacher and staff salaries and benefits. The next big chunk are fuel, utilities and maintenance costs.
Charping said a preliminary budget could be available for presentation to board members in June.