By Tamara Zellars Buck

CAIRO, Ill. - The Cairo Board of Education is looking for ways to reverse a seven-year deficit-spending trend.

Work-force reduction, program cuts and even closing one of the district's five schools are among options the school board is considering to get the district's finances under control.

"The board is looking at a lot of options," Superintendent Robert lsom said. "What we have to consider is the best way to cut costs without affecting the quality of education."

Isom said his district has "never been on real sound footing financially." Since 1993, expenditures have outpaced estimated revenues, causing the district to spend down its reserve balances.

During the 1999-2000 school year, Cairo schools will outspend the nearly $8 million budget by some $700,000.

Isom attributes the district's financial crunch to large, recurring expenditures; smaller-than-expected revenues; and a shortage of state aid from the district's declining enrollment.

The district also is limited by a contract provision mandating that 1.25 percent of every $100,000 in new, general-state-aid funding be dedicated to staff salaries. "We raise considerably less than $1 million in local tax dollars, and we lost $115,000 in general state aid this year because of declining enrollment," Isom said. "We don't have a lot of options."

Staff salaries comprise an estimated 85 to 88 percent of the district's annual budget, some 10 percent more than the average percentage. Isom said the percentage is elevated due to a large number of veteran teachers on the high end of the district's salary schedule.

A first-year teacher with a bachelor's degree in Cairo schools earns $22,748, while a teacher with a master's degree and 16 years of experience earns $45,696. Those salaries are set to increase next year, the final year of a four-year contract for certified staff, to $22,975 and $46,935, respectively.

"We have a lack of revenue and increasing expenditures basically in the area of salaries," Isom said. "Most of our staff have been here over 10 years. The longer they are here, the higher they are on the salary schedule."

If budget reductions are necessary, Isom said the obvious first choice is to cut salaries. Other reductions might be possible in maintenance and operating expenditures, but those cuts could cost the district in the long run, he said.

"If you don't keep your buildings up, they become a liability rather than a benefit," Isom said.

Although the district's curriculum offerings and extra-curricular activities were cut several years ago in an attempt to curb expenses, Isom is not ruling out the possibility of further cuts. Currently, the district offers no fine-arts courses in elementary grades, and upper-level extracurricular activities are limited to boys and girls basketball, track and cheerleading, boys baseball and girls softball at the high school, and scholar bowl at the middle and high schools.

"A lot of the programming has been cut back as far as you can and still offer a quality program," Isom said. "Any more and you run the risk of the enrollment declining even more."

The school board also is considering consolidating grade centers and closing a building, a move that could reduce operating costs and salaries. Currently, the district operates a pre-kindergarten-to-second-grade center; a third-to-fifth-grade center; a sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade middle school; and a high school for ninth through 12th grades.

Isom said consolidation appears a viable option, but none of the district's buildings is large enough to completely house enrollment from two buildings. That means grade levels throughout the district would have to be reconfigured.

"Any consolidation would naturally involve some cramped and close spaces," Isom said. "It would probably enhance capacity utilization, but you also have to consider how it would affect education."

Decisions for reducing the district's spending must be finalized soon, as school administrators are scheduled to begin contract negotiations with staff within the next month.

"The staff will have some say in this, so we will be including them in our discussions," Isom said.