A Message from Donald Songy, Superintendent
Ascension Parish School System

As we all know, our country is in the midst of an economic downturn that is directly affecting every facet of our society.  Public education is no exception.  Many of our funding sources are shrinking at a time when demands for services from our school system are rapidly rising.

Our largest source of funding (51%) is a state grant known as the Minimum Foundation Program (MFP).  During better economic times, the legislature has increased the MFP by 2.75% each year to adjust for inflation, mainly in health care and retirement costs.  This year, for the second consecutive year, there will be no increase in the MFP, even though those costs continue to rise.  In addition, state funding for several other programs has been cut, and local districts are required to come up with replacement funding.  Between those cuts and the increased costs, over which the Ascension Parish School Board has no control, we will begin our budget process for the 2010-11 school year with a startling $6 million deficit.

Prospects for local funding sources are equally bleak.  Sales tax revenues, which make up our next largest source of revenue (25%), are down almost 10% from last year.  And property tax revenues, while holding their own in this down economy, cannot nearly make up the decline in revenue from the two larger sources.  So the Ascension Parish Public School System is being forced to consider significant cuts in order to establish a balanced budget for the upcoming school year.

Our system has received the top rank in fiscal management from the Louisiana Department of Education every year since the rankings began.  We take pride in the fact that we spend your tax dollars wisely, and we work hard to avoid waste and to get the best possible impact from the revenues available to us.  Our fund balance is healthy, but we must avoid using one-time money to cover recurring expenses, because once that money is gone, we will be in a much weaker financial position.

Since it doesn’t appear that state government is willing to provide the necessary resources to the school system, the only viable option is to significantly cut expenses. And, since employee salaries and benefits make up 78% of our budget, we will inevitably have to consider reducing the number of employee positions.  What this will mean to our students is larger class sizes and a reduction in services available to them.

Fortunately, we have many talented, dedicated professionals in our classrooms who will continue to work tirelessly, in the midst of budget cuts, to provide all students the high quality education necessary to succeed in an ever changing world.  We all appreciate the tremendous support that we have continuously received from parents and community members. And we hope that, when times get better, we will once again be able to adequately fund this most important mission—the education of our children.