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03/15/2006: "Crofton school faces huge state aid cut"

With the echos of cheers and celebration still bouncing off the walls of Crofton High School, superintendent Randy Anderson came to work Monday morning with a somewhat heavy load on his mind.
“It was sort of a Catch 22, what with the girls’ team winning the state tournament, but the state aid cuts looming,” Anderson said Monday afternoon.
Just prior to the state girls tournament, the state aid list was made public, and most of the schools in northeast Nebraska, including Crofton, found themselves faced with some serious cuts.
Gouges.

The Crofton schol district will see $202,368.64 trimmed from its state aid package.
Anderson descibed the cut as “huge.” He explained that between the recent and future loss of 80 to 100 students, as well as the rise in land valuations, the state formula for determing state aid to education was reduced here.
But Crofton was not alone. Nearly every school in the region saw cuts, ranging from $215,00 in Bloomfield to $350,000 in Laurel.
Anderson noted that the early retirement incentive program the school board implements a few years ago will help Crofton get through this cut. He said because teachers with higher salaries have left the system and were replaced by lower-salaried teachers, the cuts won’t affect Crofton as much as it does some other schools.
“We’ll see some reducing or restructuring of programs and classes,” Anderson noted. “It’s inevitable in order to manage losses of this amount.”
“We might see some staffing changes,” he added.
He said certain aspects of the school’s expenses will be scrutinized closley because of their increased costs.
“We’ll get through it,” Anderson concluded. “you just need to plan for it and make it work.”