BAY MINETTE — Superintendent Faron Hollinger will present a cost-containment package to the Board of Education tonight in continuing efforts to trim $10.4 million from an already reduced budget.

Part of Hollinger’s proposal is using $5 million in state bonds to meet payroll, BOE spokesman Terry Whilhite said.

“The state Department of Education is allowing school districts to use state bond money to pay debt on buildings, which frees up the dollars originally inteded for that purpose to instead pay employees,” Whilhite said.

Whilhite said the downside of using that money for pay is the schools will have $5 million less to spend on facility construction.

‘The financial picture continues to unravel almost daily, that is, the news gets worse,” Whilhite said.

Whilhite said the goal of school officials has been to find as many reductions as possible without having to cut jobs, but said it has been difficult, because 85 percent of the budget is personnel.

With only 15 percent of the budget up for review and reduction, officials have discussed reductions in spending on bus purchases, upkeep and repair, technology, communications, buildings, grounds and maintence.

“These are cuts of catastrophic proportions,”  Whilhite said. “It is uncharted waters.”

Whilhite said the cost-containment reductions and state flexibilities should allow the schools to “limp” to the end of the year without staff reductions.

But, school officials are still working through the process of amending more than $10 million from the operating budget for the current year after the state extended the deadline from Jan. 31 to the end of February.

“(The extension) is helpful to us because the process is so complicated,” finance officer Jean McCutchen said. 

McCutchen updated school officials at a BOE worksession Monday night.

“Frankly, there is no way to increase our revenue, because we are not a revenue producing body,” McCutchen said. “The things we can do against proration are very limited.”

McCutchen said while BOE policy mandates she keep a one-month operating budget as the general fund balance, it was an unrealistic balance for the month of December due to cash flow issues.

“After the governor’s declaration of proration Dec. 15, our December check was cut by $1 million per month to make up for proration,” McCutchen said. 

Proration combined with state-wide education funding cutbacks totals a $23 million decrease in funds for Baldwin County schools, according to McCutchen’s records.

Lagging sales tax revenues and delays in ad valorem property tax does not help the situation.

“Sales tax is lower in every month compared to last year,” McCutchen said. “And, I am sure you know there are more than 14,000 property tax appeals.”

McCutchen said she is considering all state approved flexibilities to relieve pressure from the general fund while meeting salaries and other expenses.