Superintendent of Portland Public Schools, Mary Jo OConnor announced that the Portland Schools have exceeded their $81.7 budget by about 2%. This is despite $500,000 in cuts made in May of 2006. OConnor explained that the increased spending was due to factors beyond the control of Portland Schools officials.
Unavoidable Increases for Portland Schools
OConnor stated that the deficit was regrettable but unavoidable. Federal and state education mandates, increased utility costs, and collective bargaining agreements were cited as causes of the huge deficit. Portland Schools has seen significant increases in energy costs and health insurance costs since the budget was first approved. Portland Schools say that all looked good with the budget until the end of May 2007, when forecasts projected the year-end deficit. What happened?
In the fall of 2006 the Portland Schools approved the hiring of over 7 new Special Education positions to fulfill state and federal mandates. Also, in November the Portland Schools Committee approved a collective bargaining contract at 3%, rather than the projected 2.5%. The figures show that Portland Schools spent an additional $625,000...
To view and download this full PLR article, you must be logged in. Registration is completely free. Once you create your account, you will be able to browse, search & downlod from our PLR articles database of over "1,57,897+" on 1,000's of niches and 200+ categories without paying a penny. Click here to signup...
