Christina School District starts cutting costs

Two days after voters slapped down a request to raise property taxes to cover growing costs, the Christina School District announced Thursday cost-cutting actions to prepare for a looming budget deficit.

The district has placed a freeze on new hiring and axed all travel for district personnel. District administrators also cut school budgets and directed department heads and principals to start cutting overtime, reducing contracted services and eliminating or leaving unfilled positions in which teachers get extra pay for extra responsibilities, like advisers and coaches.

"We don't want people to think that we're going to start shutting programs down now. We're very respectful of what our students and schools are engaged in," said Superintendent Freeman Williams. "At the same time, we need to be prudent and responsible and begin to prepare for the adjustments we need to make."

The district also will begin looking at possible reductions to pay for administrators and will invite teacher unions to discuss the possibility of reduced pay or eliminating jobs, Williams said.

Christina administrators say they are facing a budget deficit of $9 million for the coming year because of expanding enrollment and growing costs for things like transportation and utilities.

The district gets about 30 percent of budget in local money, most of it from property taxes, and about 60 percent from the state. While the state's share grows each year as more students enroll, districts can increase their property taxes only by convincing voters to approve a referendum.

Christina offered voters two options for possible tax increase Tuesday, and both were soundly defeated.

The first item, which administrators said would have raised enough money to close the budget gap, failed 2,119 to 6,076. The second, which would have increased taxes more so the district could invest in after-school, arts programs and other improvements, failed 1,826 to 6,348.

District officials have said they will likely go back to the drawing board and put a different proposal in front of voters to avoid more dramatic cuts next school year. The school board will decide at its March 10 meeting whether to request a second vote.

Contact Matthew Albright at malbright@delawareonline.com, (302) 324-2428 or on Twitter @TNJ_malbright.