From the Superintendent's Desk
March 2009
Kyrene’s Proactive Measures Address Budgetary Challenges
This open letter to the Kyrene community appeared in the Ahwatukee Foothills News, Arizona Republic and Wrangler News in December 2008.
The financial crisis affecting the world, nation and state is having a very real impact on us locally. Employees and members of the Kyrene school community are facing unprecedented financial turmoil and challenges.
It is important to note that this also has an impact on the school district budget as we move into the second part of the current school year and plan for the next one. State funding for education is almost half of the entire budget for the state of Arizona and with a large deficit looming it is probable that funding will be reduced for educational programs across the state.
Fortunately, Kyrene is quite familiar with how to address budgetary challenges because we have been in an era of declining enrollment and reduced funding for a fair number of years now. As we have continued to face increasingly tough financial times, we have planned well and a number of good strategies are already in place to help us move forward.
In other words, we are not starting at “square one” as we look at the current situation. Our area’s on-going enrollment decline has been largely offset by the number of open enrollment families who choose Kyrene and this has lessened the impact on the budget. In addition, the district is able to “pre-pay” portions of certain expenses such as insurance and health care from unexpended funds that are available and the law allows us to “carry forward” a limited percentage of the current year budget to apply to next year’s expenses.
We have rallied our staff to understand that we want to approach these issues as “ One Team”. Any savings realized from a specific budget provides money for competing needs as the money truly does belong to all of us.
We’ve encourage our entire staff to take collective responsibility for meeting any challenge. About a month ago, I asked the entire organization to reduce spending by 5% through any creative idea that makes sense.
If you have ideas, we welcome them and encourage you to go to our website at www.kyrene.org or contact Nancy Dudenhoefer our Community Relations Manager at ndudenhoefer@kyrene.org.
Most of all, we are reminded that this is a particularly important time to show compassion for those in need so we can weather the uncertain economic times that are part of our current reality.
David K. Schauer, Ed.D.
Superintendent
Back to Top
