The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Full-time counselor coming to Crested Butte
The Gunnison RE1J school district got a little extra breathing room in its budget after the state’s legislative session closed May 9 with promises of smaller funding cuts for the state’s schools next year.
The $200,000 loss that had once been projected locally for the 2012-13 school district is now closer to $10,000, meaning there will be only a few minor cuts that will all stay clear of the classroom.
District business manager Stephanie Juneau says, “It’s wonderful,” as long as nothing catastrophic happens before the check is cashed. At Crested Butte Community School, the district will be able to replace a retiring part-time elementary school counselor, whose position was privately funded after being cut by the district last year, with a full-time counselor. A second school district psychologist will also be added to the ranks.
There had been a glimmer of hope that the cuts from next year’s school budget would be less than originally planned when a revenue projection from the state came in significantly higher than previously reported. Those projections held through the legislative session.
That means the district will get $6,453 per stucent in funding for an estimated 1,724 students next year, instead of the $6,457 it got this year. However, the relatively flat funding wasn’t enough to replace the $80,000 that had been cut from wages in the district’s transportation department. The only other reduction in funding planned for next year was for lower utility costs that result from a district-wide effort at using less power.
“Certainly based on where we’re ending up, which is about $6.36 per pupil less than last year, that’s certainly way better than what we’d originally anticipated, which was a couple hundred thousand dollars overall,” Superintendent Jon Nelson said. “That definitely makes budgeting a whole lot easier.”
Anyone interested in reviewing the first draft of the 2012-13 budget can see it online at gunnisonschools.net at the bottom of the ‘Financial Information’ page under the ‘School Board’ tab. The board will have a look at a new draft of the budget at their June 4 meeting.
