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Though the financial woes facing Brooke County Board of Education members are serious, the situation could have been worse. Even though a miscalculation by a former school system employee left the board with $3.2 million a year less than board members had expected, the district's finances remain basically solid.
Last week, board members approved a budget for fiscal 2021, which begins July 1. Their plan calls for the school system to spend $35.2 million during that 12-month period. That is $1.4 million more than the budget adopted last year for fiscal 2020.
Expenses, including fixed costs over which school officials have little if any control, increase every year, however. Because of the $3.2 million error, board members have had to take drastic action to keep the budget in balance. That has included reducing employment by about 40 people. It also resulted in board members voting to eliminate a $5,000 stipend many employees had expected.
Again, however, the school district's revenue base seems good. Otherwise, it would not have been possible to approve a budget in excess of past spending plans.
School Superintendent Jeffrey Crook seems cautiously optimistic. As he told board members last week, "We're going to be in a better place in a couple of years."
Let us hope so.
In moving forward, board members will keep in the backs of their minds the knowledge that decreased enrollment during recent years has resulted in lower state aid payments. In turn, they has forced officials to engage in a round of school consolidations.
Lower enrollment is beyond the board's control, for the most part. People tend to go where the jobs are, taking their school-age children with them.
Maintaining a good school system for the good of children already in the county is a top priority, of course. But it also can have the side-effect of boosting enrollment by attracting new residents to the county.
All this is to say that Brooke County school officials have made some tough decisions to keep their financial heads above water. In effect, they have been playing defense during the past several months.
It is time now to go on the offensive, making the school system a showcase of how dramatic improvements in education can be made even at a time of fiscal difficulty.