School officials say budget cuts inevitable

Okaloosa County school officials minced no words. Budget cuts are coming and they’re not going to be painless.

“We are looking about a $10 million cut,” said Dr. Alexis Tibbets, superintendent of schools.

At the same time, “the cost of doing business has gone up from last year,” Tibbets said. “Everything’s gone up: diesel in buses, food in lunchrooms, lawn mowers, textbooks, and salaries.

“The cost of insurance is skyrocketing. Not just health insurance, but for buildings. And the cost of utilities is staggering.”

“It has been a very tough year, I can tell you that,” said Rodney Nobles, deputy superintendent, and things aren’t looking brighter.

“We operate our budget process off the governor’s budget,” Nobles explained. “The governor’s budget came out and it was pretty draconian.”

“We’ll have to look at specific areas such as programs and services,” Nobles said. “Just cutting across the board now would affect some of the smaller schools to the point where they couldn’t operate. We’ll have to go out and identify areas that need to be targeted and maybe eliminated.”
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My number one goal is to keep the cuts as far away from the students and the classroom as possible,” assured Dr. Tibbets.

“The federal budget is struggling with trillions of dollars for the war effort,” Tibbets said. It has cut Impact Funding, the compensation that schools near large military installations, such as Eglin Air Force Base, receive for the loss of property taxes.

Federal funding has also been greatly reduced or cut for specific programs such as special education.

“People need to realize the class size reduction amendment is still in effect and we still have to hold to those numbers,” Nobles explained. “That causes more teachers and classroom space to be needed.”

But as things look bleaker, Nobles said there is one shining light. Teachers and staff are stepping forward in increasing numbers and offering to do what they can to help.

“It’s been neat hearing these stories of people caring for other people,” Nobles declared. “People step up in tough times, and that’s just what this is, a tough time, but we’re going to get through it.”

Alexis Tibbets also expressed optimism for the future of education in Okaloosa County, despite the challenges ahead.

“We’re going to make it, and I want people to know we’re going to be alright,” Tibbets said.