PCSSD School bus
LITTLE ROCK, Ark (KTHV) -- The Pulaski County Special School District was placed under fiscal distress in 2011 for matters involving lack of "fiscal integrity." Officials say a state audit shows violation of policies and procedures for that citation.
Now, the Arkansas Department of Education is also classifying them under distress due to last school yea'rs drop in financial reserves. It's an unprecedent situation for the Arkansas Department of Education to handle--two citations within two school years for the same district.
Superintendent Jerry Guess says the reason is easy to identify--inefficiency of spending.
"We're not spending our money as efficiently as it could be spent and we need to address those issues." says Guess.
The district reports a loss of $5.5 million in revenue for last school year. But Guess points to some good things happening in the district, including new computers.
Guess says, "We also have created a building renovation plan that will result in us spending about $8 million of building fund money on renovations in over a dozen of our buildings. So, this doesn't mean that we are WITHOUT money. It means we're in a situation where we need to become more efficient."
Arkansas law gives a district 2 years to clean things up, but Seth Blomeley with the Arkansas Department of Education says that's not enough time. "We would like the legislature to change the law to give us 5 years to work on that. We think 2 years---that's a lot to get done in 2 years."
Some cost saving measures already being discussed include changing the bell schedules, bus routes and cutting some employee fringe benefits. Guess says they have also changed staffing. And if someone leaves their position, the district re-evaluates to make sure that position needs to be refilled or if they can cut that salary and use funds somewhere else.
Guess the district will get through this, adding, "I need to reassure parents that things are really in great shape here. We need to increase our efficiency in order to be able to continue serving the students in the district in the ways that we should serve them."