The Hammond School Board approved the district's 2024 budget Tuesday, but where to cut spending remains a topic of debate.
School City of Hammond's cash reserves have taken a major hit recently, and Chief Financial Officer Eric Kurtz expects cash flow to be extremely tight at the end of this year. "We may have to delay payment to some vendors," Kurtz told board members. "We may have to sweep in cash from different funds that are under our control. We may have to take advantage of some type of bridge loan facility from one of our banking institutions or use a letter of credit."
The school corporation has been using tax anticipation warrants to make sure there's cash on hand, but even paying those back is becoming difficult. And the situation will become even more challenging if voters fail to renew the operating referendum in November.
But school leaders appear to have different ideas about how to fix the budget challenges.
Board member Carlotta Blake-King wants to renegotiate contracts and reduce what she considers to be redundant services, like the outsourcing of substitute teaching. "To even suggest that it's going to cost us more in insurance and all of that, the people are there. They're already getting paid. They're already collecting benefits. So I don't understand the rationale from that," Blake-King said.
Board member Cindy Murphy voiced concern with the increasing cost of security. "Those costs have exploded, and I'm not saying we don't need security but, when your costs go from like $300,000 to into the millions, that's dollars we could be sending into the classroom," Murphy said.
But Murphy later praised the district's school resource officer program, which gets some of its funding from the state.
Meanwhile, administrators say they have been limiting discretionary spending by slowing hiring, reducing travel expenses, renegotiating contracts for things like internet and pest control, and reusing existing furniture before buying new items. They also point out that many contracts are covered by state and federal grants that may only be used for that purpose.
As it stands, the 2024 budget totals $157.2 million. Board members also approved capital projects and bus replacement plans, despite the fact that the money largely isn't there to support them. They also passed a resolution asking the state to let the district collect more money in property tax revenues, although Kurtz wasn't optimistic that it would get approved.
Board member Blake-King abstained from voting on all six budget-related resolutions, which drew frustration from board member Murphy. "There's no reason to vote no. There is no reason to abstain. These are things that, statutorily, we as board members need to take care of," Murphy told the rest of the board.
The budget now goes to the state for final review.