BAMBERG – Bamberg School District One’s budget is balanced for the upcoming year in spite of a 9 percent cut in funding. The district’s income fell from $15 million in 2008-09 to $13,662,316.66 for 2009-10, a decrease of almost $1.5 million.

Cutting expenditures to meet the income was not an easy task, Superintendent Phyllis Schwarting said at the May 25 board meeting.

Retirees have borne much of the brunt of the cuts, losing 20 percent of their checks, she said. Supplies and everything else possible has been cut to the bone, Schwarting said. Additionally, some funds were saved when personnel chose not to return to their jobs in the fall, she said.

“We had a teacher and an aide to resign, and another teacher is not coming back,” Schwarting said. “We also had to change the pots from which different salaries were drawn.”

The balanced budget is based on the assumption that further cuts will not be made next year, Schwarting said. However, the board will not be surprised if that happens, so they’re already looking at other options, she said. Unfortunately, there are not many other places to cut back except in personnel and programs offered to students, according to Schwarting.

The largest area of lost income came with the reduction of base student cost, which dropped from $2,578 last year to $2,034 for 2009-10, she said. This decreased the general fund by 11 percent, an especially painful reduction because the general fund is more flexible than funds that are allocated for specific purposes, the superintendent said.

Title I funds for at-risk children were cut by 8 percent, but the new stimulus package gave the district an extra boost, Schwarting said. These funds added up to $175,336.57. The drawback is that it’s good for no more than two years, she said.

The South Carolina Reading First Project was cut by 31 percent, and the Increased High School Diploma funds, used to pay teachers’ salaries and offer extra high school credits, were cut by 25 percent. Funding from Excellence in Middle Schools was down 24 percent. Funding from lottery money was down by 24 percent.

The biggest single blow suffered by any single school in the district was the loss of funds for technical assistance at Bamberg-Ehrhardt Middle School, Schwarting said. For the past two years, the school has received $250,000 to $275,000, she said. For the coming year, this income has been cut to $60,000, a decrease of 75 percent.

Also during the meeting, Schwarting recognized students who demonstrated excellence in education this year. Eighth graders at Bamberg-Ehrhardt Middle scored third in the state for improvement in math scores, according to National Accounting for Educational Progress.

She said honor students at Bamberg-Ehrhardt Middle School scored high on end-of-course testing in Algebra I and English I. All of the algebra students passed the test. Nine of them, almost half the class, scored 100 percent. Of students taking the Honors English I class, 96.5 percent passed the test.

Schwarting said two middle school students received honors for their writing skills. Eighth grader George Macintosh wrote an essay that won the Governor’s Citizenship Award. He was invited to shadow Rep. Bakari Sellers at the South Carolina Statehouse last week. Ryan Brooks won the Superintendent’s Writing Award and was to be recognized by State Superintendent Jim Rex at a luncheon.

Schwarting also recognized Megan Black, an English teacher at Bamberg-Ehrhardt High, for getting 1,100 new library books for the school district. Black appealed to some of the more affluent school districts in the state for help, and several responded by donating the books, Schwarting said. Most of the books, which were valued at $12,419, were new and will be distributed to middle and high schools throughout the district, she said.

A public hearing on next year’s budget will be held at 6:30 p.m. on June 22. The school board will meet immediately following the hearing, and the third reading will be held to pass the budget.

T&D Correspondent Dale Linder-Altman can be reached by e-mail at jerryanddale@lowcountry.com. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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