St. Joseph Superintendent Preparing For Major Budget Cuts

sjhighschool-17
sjhighschool-17

The St. Joseph Public Schools Board of Education is bracing for major deficits in the district due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Superintendent Thomas Bruce gave the board a budget road map for the coming year at a Monday meeting. He tells WSJM News he’s anticipating a budget cut of around 7%.

“School is out, and yet at the same time, it’s likely at this point as far as we can see that the state will deduct $2.1 million, or almost $700 per pupil from St. Joseph Public Schools,” Bruce said.

Bruce says school officials have to make plans now for how that will be handled. He expects to have a budget proposal at the end of June, and it will have to be amended several times as the picture from the state gets clear. The final plan probably won’t be known until September.

“Our budgets are largely people. When you talk about education, teaching students is social. Learning is social. Teaching is social. It requires people to do this, and here in St. Joseph, we rely on our relationships with our families and our students. So when you talk about a large cut like this, it will likely involve people.”

But Bruce says the district doesn’t want to damage the classroom experience for students. Then there’s the pandemic. He says it’s hard to know exactly how school will look next year. Bruce says district leaders are looking at spending down the fund balance, and making adjustments in three areas. They are operations and transportation, attrition, and line items where reductions can be made.