The Jordan School District is seeking residents to be involved on a cost savings committee this spring. Our school district, like many others across the state, has been struggling with a state school funding system that does not meet the needs of local school districts. Over the past years, the Jordan School District has implemented budget reductions, has used its fund reserves to cover shortfalls, and has gone to the voters with a referendum proposal to provide additional resources. Unfortunately, looking at the budget summary sheet now available on the Jordan School District’s website at http://jordan.k12.mn.us/dist/budget/budget.htm [1] there is more work that needs to be done.

The general operating fund for the school district had a $1,262,109 fund reserve as of June 30, 2007. The projections for 2007-08 show that expenses for the school district will exceed revenues by $513,402. This means that the projected fund reserve on June 30, 2008 will be at $747,707. Without cost reductions and/or approved referendum dollars the school district will essentially have no fund reserve after the 2008-09 school year.

I encourage anyone interested in participating in the cost savings discussions to contact the school district and submit your name for this committee. If you would prefer to not participate on the committee, but have some ideas, the school district would like to hear from you. I know that we all want quality schools, but I also know we need to work together to address the reality of funding challenges our school district is currently facing.