Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

School district sets budget for this year

Gurdon School System is projecting $5,512,638 in expenditures in 2004-2005, which is up from last year's $4,982,475 expenditure prediction revealed by Superintendent Bobby Smithson.

In regard to a beginning balance, the figure for this year is $632,926, with an ending balance predicted of $570, 125. The deficit, according to the superintendent, should be made up from three line items; delinquent property tax, excess commissions and land redemptions.

Those three line items are estimated to generate approximately $153,232, which are considered contingency funds. The idea is for about $68,000 of that money to balance the year-end and the rest to go for unforseen projects. Smithson said at the August School Board meeting, "We have started this year in the black."

"The budget is better than before," he said, "There is more money to work with. For example, our teachers with masters degrees, or more than 15 years of experience, got 16 percent raises this time, while starting teachers got 4 percent."

On the non-certified side of things, they got a 10 percent raise for about 40 people. Counting teachers and administrators, there are 72 certified workers at Gurdon.

"As to state mandates, our school board voted to give certified personnel $50,000 more dollars to work with on salaries than was required by the state," Smithson said. "In dollars and cents, our beginning teachers got a $1,202 raise and our high end ones got $5,753."

In other changes this year, Smithson noted the middle school now has a modified block schedule. This means 90 minute classes for math, English and language arts, while students will still be in other classes 55 minutes.

In high school, Gurdon is offering drama for the first time. The high school is sending 20 students to Arkadelphia to go to Ouachita-VoTech in Malvern, which is up 15 from the five who went last year.

This year's K-12 population is 850, down by 28 students from last year. Smithson said numbers keep changing until Labor Day so a truer population may be established by then.