ST. LOUIS — 5 On Your Side is delving into the St. Louis Public Schools’ budget as more information was released Tuesday at the final board meeting before school starts.
SLPS Chief Financial Officer Angie Banks clarified budget numbers Tuesday night. She said going from a $17 million surplus to a $35 million deficit were projections and proposals and not solidified.
“We are certainly very early in the year," Banks said. "We've had very little revenues received. We spent very little money because we're just so early in the year."
Banks said with the current state of the fund balance, also known as the rainy day fund, they are not at all concerned about those numbers.
“We have planned deficit spending this year and next year," Banks said. "We know we've given some big raises, so if we're going to get back to a balanced budget that means some belt-tightening and some hard decisions."
Banks referred to it as the "money in the bank," which they'll use to cover the deficit.
“That $231.7 million beginning balance is reduced by that roughly $34.3 million deficit to an ending fund balance of $197.4 million,” Banks said.
She said there were several reasons for the planned deficit, including competitive compensation for faculty and staff, transportation, new initiatives and internal capacity building.
“When we talked about the internal capacity building, that is really referencing that we have a lot of contracts, and we’re really looking to have our internal staff do a lot of the work that currently contractors are doing,” Banks said.
She said they're spending $32 million to have competitive salaries.
Byron Clemens with the American Federation of Teachers, Local 420, said significant raises are key for recruitment and retention.
“We've worked for years underpaid. It's about time to treat us as the professionals we are,” Clemens said.
Clemens said the union is not worried right now about possible layoffs in the future but always wants to be part of the solution.
“Once upon a time, there was talk of layoffs," Clemens said, "and that's how we came up with a strategy to freeze our salaries and have furloughs, including the superintendent. They took a furlough, and all the middle management, all the chiefs and directors and deputy directors took a furlough at the same time, and the rest of us did, but we don't anticipate that this time are we going to have to."
In a recent efficiency study, it stated it would cost $1.8 billion to get all of the district buildings into "good shape." Banks said at this point, the efficiency study said the district would need to close 20 buildings to be properly sized based on enrollment.
Student registration is up this year, but more students would certainly help the budget.
“We need more families in the district,” Banks said.
She said some other things can make a difference.
“I think that the district probably needs to be on a regular rhythm of issuing bonds so that we can have more consistency in the things that we want to achieve,” Banks said.
Clemens said the district also needs to look at the Good Jobs First Report that came out about tax increment financing (TIF) and tax abatements.
“They analyzed all the school districts locally and found there was a disparity among Black and brown and impoverished districts and other districts about how large the TIFs and tax abatements were," Clemens said. "And in St Louis City's case, we're talking about $260 million over the last five to six years, and it's gone up since then. So if we're really talking about balancing the budget, everybody should pay their fair share. We don't want to be misunderstood. We're not saying no TIFs, no tax abatements, but they should be reasonable. And, everyone should be paying something."