Thursday, January 24, 2008

More budget woes

Here are the LAST four graphs of the PSS story in today's Variety:

The school system’s FY 2006 budget was cut by $2 million which the
administration promised to restore. “We can’t add personnel, we can’t even
replace some positions, and this may affect the regular opening of schools in
August,” Borja said. PSS has a current budget of $37.2 million of which $35
million is available for personnel following the across-the-board budget cuts
caused by the government’s declining revenue collections.“That’s already a
shortfall of over $2 million,” Borja said. “With the present number of personnel
actions that we have processed, we will have a shortfall in pay period 18 or
sometime in June.”

5 comments:

phyllis ain said...

Am thinking that ACT should confirm with Dr. Borja the likelihood of payless paydays as soon as possible. We need to get the matter resolved before people leave the island for vacation or other reasons.

Betty said...

Hi Phyllis,
According to my notes from the last BOE meeting (which I am "supposed" to be forwarding to teachers this week) PSS has reported to the BOE that given the budget shortalls predicted, no funds will be available by pay period 19 (August 18.) This is a situation the BOE has been aware of since last school year. This personnel shortfall is directly related to the '06 shortfall created when the legislature did not replace funds they "borrowed" from PSS. (In addition to CUC bills sucking a HUGE chunk of our budget.) If you want more specifics, feel free to let me know.

phyllis ain said...

Betty: I will talk with you about this in person, but isn't this something that the BOE needs to address and take action about now?
Am not blaming anyone; am just concerned that the Board and PSS not ignore the 500 pound elephant in the middle of the room ...

Jeff said...

That's the commisioner's public quote -- the head of the entire operation.

Betty said...

Hopefully the update I sent today gives you a better picture of exactly where we stand. Yes, BOE is attempting to take action on this now which is why you're reading about it in the paper, etc. A lot of time was spent at the BOE meeting discussing how to lower utility costs and work with the legislature to ensure proper funding, etc.
Just let me know when you'd like to talk, or I can forward you all my notes on the subject.