FLEMING ISLAND – In presenting the first few expenditures that lay the foundation of its 2016-17 budget, the Clay County School District has again exacted the paring knife.

At a special budget session and called meeting March 29, the board voted 4-1 to approve a new allocation package that cuts three health educator positions from the district next year while adding a partial administrator position at one elementary school. Veteran board member Carol Studdard voted no on the package and board member Janice Kerekes was out of town for the meeting.

Superintendent Charlie Van Zant Jr. said the move was not easy but was just the first step if the district sincerely wanted to significantly improve its finances, continue to provide quality student programs and give employees raises.

“I want to increase salaries, but I also have a responsibility to balance our budget along the way and get our financial health recharged before doing so. We’ve come a long way in the right direction but we still have a long way to go,” Van Zant said.

Instead of having health educators provide abstinence education at district schools where they are invited in, the program will be administered using current classroom teachers and will meet state statutes that require the program.

“This was tough because each leader came with their programs and positions that are personal to them and professionally important to them,” said Diane Kornegay, deputy school superintendent.

Kornegay said the process that was unveiled on March 29 began the previous week with a working group of undisclosed “district leaders” who were asked to examine programs from the lenses of cutting, becoming more efficient and ending any possible duplications. She said administrators – about 15 in the task group – had to answer tough questions.

She said staff was asked “How do these programs and positions directly impact and support improving student academic performance? Are there any duplication of services? Are there programs or services that can be delivered through a more innovative, effective and less costly means? And, are there any programs that are no longer needed given the changes in our instructional delivery model?”

The questions originated from Jim Hamilton, president of the Pensacola, Fla.-based HBEC Group, a lobbying firm that counsels members of the Florida Association of School District Principals, of which Clay County is a member. He spoke to the March 29 meeting at no cost, Kornegay said. Based on his years as a school principal and years of lobbying the Legislature, Hamilton painted a dark picture of state education funding. He signaled that cuts should be on the mind of the Clay County School Board and district officials.

“If you want to do stuff for kids, if you want to do things for your employees, you need to find the money with the money you have and spend it differently. And that is the only answer there because you don’t have any authority. You know that, right? You have no taxing authority that’s not either granted by the Legislature or by the people in a referendum. You cannot raise money independently. Period,” Hamilton said.

Studdard wanted transparency and asked district staff who from the district sat in on the discussions involving the allocation cuts. Kornegay said it was 15 people from district staff but no school principals were involved in the work group meeting.

“That’s fine and good, it’s just I just tend to move a little slower,” Studdard said. “We need to stop and think what we’re doing. I understand this is the first start with this group… that met with you, but something this serious, we need to make some big budget cuts in order to get ourselves back whole financially. We didn’t get in this hole overnight and we’re not going to get out of it overnight.”

Kornegay also stressed that the new allocation package shifts some duties from district staff back to the schools, something she described as repurposing. Van Zant echoed her sentiments.

“I do believe that our employees deserve more, but I’ve also said and believe that we cannot spend money that we do not have. The only option that we really have is to closely scrutinize every dollar and aggressively repurpose resources to meet those goals of improving student achievement and improving employee compensation.”

The district’s money woes have come under fire since 2012, the last year the district maintained a three percent fund balance, which is required by Florida statutes and is closely watched by the Florida Department of Education. The last year the district was at three percent was 2012 and the balance has dipped yearly until this year.

Hamilton challenged board members to find new money to fund the things they believe are important to the district and the students.

“If you want to pay your people more, you’re going to have to find the money. If you want a better set of academies for Clay County students, you’re going to have to find money. You’re doing some things that you’ve been doing for the past 20 years that you should keep doing for the next 20 years. You’ve been doing some things for a year that you shouldn’t do for another moment unless you are exquisitely different from every other organization in the world, that is the fact of life,” Hamilton said.

In the coming weeks, Van Zant said, he will be working to meet with school principals and other “stakeholders” who want to meet both goals – giving pay raises and providing quality education. He said, however, cuts will have to be made.

“With 85 percent of our budget going towards people, the fact is we can’t continue to have more people and pay them less or have fewer people and pay them more, however, we cannot do both,” Van Zant said.

School board member Betsy Condon said employee pay raises are important to her and, if not accomplished, could create tension between her and Van Zant. Said she heard Hamilton’s message and, at the meeting, publicly challenged principals and their support staffs to go back to the schools and examine ways to cut more.

“I don’t want to cut the programs that you have put your time and effort and probably your own money into and I value those programs. Employee raises are important to me. I told the superintendent that we could be at odds if he didn’t find a way to get that done and that’s more valuable to me than keeping doing things the way that we were doing them because we’re doing them that way.”