Division Superintendent

January 2010

Dear Friends of Charlotte County Public Schools,

Happy New Year!  It is impossible to believe that we are half way through the school year already!  I do hope you all enjoyed a relaxing and renewing holiday break and are all settled in to begin a new semester full of opportunity and possibilities! 

As we bring the first semester to a close and look forward to our work over the next few months, I am especially burdened with certainly, the most challenging task I have faced in my seven years as your superintendent-the development of next year’s budget.  Upon receiving Governor Kaine’s proposed budget late last month, we learned that Charlotte County Schools could lose upwards of one million dollars of state revenue for next year.  Having already been cut over $600,000.00 in state funding in this fiscal year, the sad reality has finally come…we will not be able to prevent employee layoffs and the loss of critical positions in our organization.  We have worked so hard to reduce spending and conserve so this was not necessary.  We have frozen all non-essential positions for the past two years, and eliminated all discretionary spending not absolutely critical to instruction or operations.  Unfortunately, the economic situation in Virginia has worsened, and it appears we will have no alternative but to impact and reduce our current workforce.

Our Leadership Team has worked diligently since October to prepare a plan with the hope we would never have to use it.  We are so proud of the accomplishments of this fine school division, and grieve the reality that we will most likely be forced to give up some of the tremendous human resources who have contributed over the years to our success.  We are embracing this difficult process with a commitment to protecting all programs for our students.  While we won’t know if this is possible for a few months, it is our hope that we will not have to eliminate any programs for our students.  We know we will have to cut them.  We will simply have no choice; however, we want to do our best to protect as many instructional options we currently have available to our students and their families. 

Over the next several weeks, I will be working with the Leadership Team, the School Board and ultimately the Board of Supervisors to finalize our proposed plan for the anticipated revenue shortfall.  By the end of this month, the Leadership Team will have developed with me our plan to reduce next year’s budget by the projected shortfall.  At the February School Board Meeting, we will have a public hearing to receive input from Charlotte County citizens regarding this important agenda.  After sharing the plan with the School Board in February, I will begin notifying employees most likely to be impacted by the reduction in force immediately.  And then we wait…We wait for the House and Senate proposals.  We wait for the new Governor’s proposal.  We wait for the General Assembly to embrace a plan.  We wait for the final budget numbers and then we begin again.  We are hopeful but not optimistic that the cuts will stop at a million.  All indications support much deeper cuts before it is all over.  While we will do what we have to do, this is a sad time for public education. 

Please help us to get the attention of our state legislators. We don’t expect to be excluded from reductions, but we do need their understanding of the implications of cuts this deep.  Our children did not create this recession, and their future’s should not be compromised because of it.  Please call, write and email your legislators frequently over the next several weeks to encourage them to protect K-12 education.  Our children, their teachers and their futures are depending on you.  Thank you for your support and assistance.

Melody Hackney                                                                                                                           

Superintendent of Schools