by Daphne Brown of DeSoto TODAY

Chief Financial Officer Bobby LaBorde said stringent belt-tightening measures have better positioned the district to save money.

The bleak financial picture DeSoto School District administrators painted last fall is slowly getting brighter, according to a mid-year business report provided at the Feb. 23 board meeting.

Chief Financial Officer Bobby LaBorde said stringent belt-tightening measures have better positioned the district to save money. In August, the board approved a multi-million dollar deficit budget after providing the heftiest-ever employee raises. Since that time, LaBorde said cuts have been made where possible as the spending of every dollar is scrutinized.

DeSoto has earned or spent 62 percent of the $59.2 million local, state and federal funds it budgeted while its spent 42 percent of the $66.5 million in expenditures budgeted. The more than $7 million difference has been the focus of first- and second-round cuts administrators have implemented, including reducing staff which they've said has been done with the least effect to student learning and the severe paring down of district travel and supplies.

Thanks to campus principals closely monitoring their budgets, a stabilization in utility costs and increased student daily attendance rates, DeSoto has saved in the neighborhood of $300,000. LaBorde said that figure should be somewhere between $500,000-$1 million before the end of the 2008-09 school year.

Slightly higher totals in the district's overall student count, as well as an increase in the number of students participating in the district's federal free and reduced prices meal program, the district has gained more than $500,000 in funding.

More than 300 students, or almost 6 percent, over last year are participating in the federally-funded meal program. Other students in groups affecting this figure are Special Ed., Bilingual/ESL, Gift and Talented and Career and Tech.

When asked why he thinks there are more students participating the free and reduced meal program, LaBorde said there are more people applying. Almost 60 percent of the district's student population participates in the program.

“I don't think there are more people in need, I just think there are more people applying who haven't applied in the past,” LaBorde said.

He said business in the Child Nutrition Department is booming. District-wide the department has served 883,000 meals, which includes 21,000 more breakfasts and 43,000 more lunches served over the same time last year. LaBorde's only concerns about the nutrition department were maintaining appropriate staffing levels in order to handle the increases.

Staffing is his and Superintendent Lloyd Treadwell's concern throughout the district as DeSoto is having to operate at the 2005-06 funding levels due to no assistance from the state legislature.

“Our concern is the 13-cents. We're trying to get this budget to where we don't have to go to the voters and ask for that tax increase for this year or the next,” Treadwell said. “Hopefully, this economy will get turned around by then.”

Treadwell reminded the board of the Cedar Hill and Duncanville district's dismally unsuccessful 13-cent tax increase requests.

“Those districts were denied and denied handily,” he said. “It's our hope we can get our budget reduced to the point we don't have to ask.”

Treadwell said he continues to remind the district's leadership team that the nation is in a situation.

“It's extremely important business to get this budget under control,” he said. “Staff is doing what I ask of them; it's not what I want to ask of them, but they do as I ask.”

Treadwell warned boardmembers that administration will not bring forth a balanced budget despite the ongoing cost-saving measures, in large part due to the legislative constraints under which the district is continually required to work.

Boardmembers praised all those involved in helping the district shave costs wherever and whenever possible.

“From what I've heard, there's been no complaining, which shows the highest levels of professionalism,” Boardmember Dee Trimble said. “I am proud to be a part of an organization that takes that type of approach.”

Board President Don Gant said the district hasn't been lucky, it's been blessed.

“I've sat on this board for a number of years, and every time we're in crisis mode, we receive a blessing, and we're able to keep our heads above water,” he said. “ The principals, administrators and everyone out there who's had to say “What can I do?' without complaining, we appreciate you.

“There's not another district I'd rather go through this with,” Gant said.

Boardmembers Curt Krohn, Sharon Sternes and Rhonda Lemons were not at the meeting.

The board also approved a 22:1 class size waiver for one first-grade class at Woodridge Elementary with 23 students instead of the state-required 22 students to one teacher.

Treadwell said the request will be one of only eight other times the district has made such a request - six times in 1994 because of an unexpected spike in enrollment and once in 2006 due to Hurricane Katrina.

All other first-grade sections at the campus are full.

“It could be that some first-grader will withdraw next week and we won't need the waiver, but until then, we are asking the board to approve the waiver request,” Treadwell said.

The board unanimously approved the waiver request.

The DeSoto School Board meets the first and third Mondays of each month at the Dalton L. James Administration Building, located at 200 E. Belt Line Road in DeSoto. Next month, however, there will only be one meeting on March 9, due to the weeklong spring break holiday, set from March 16-20 in which the district is closed.

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