A standing-room-only crowd of students, athletes and parents packed a Grand County High School room Monday, Oct. 12 to hear Grand County School District Superintendent Margaret Hopkin’s report on the recently discovered $2.2 million Grand school district deficit. Those in attendance appeared to be specifically concerned about projected cuts to the district’s student activities budget.

The following day, Hopkin and Grand County Board of Education members Deb Hren and Jim Webster spoke during the Moab Area Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon and fielded more questions about the deficit. Those meetings were among several being held almost daily as the school district attempts to inform the community of its dire financial straits, while at the same time trying to convince voters to approve a tax leeway that will be on November’s ballot.

During the Monday meeting most of the questions were directed to proposed cuts to student activities. “This is why we’re here right now,” said Hopkin, pointing to a chalk board that outlined the deficit and the proposed $100,000 annual cut to student activities over the next four years.

Grand County High School Principal Steve Hren solicited support from those in attendance to create a small but diligent group of parents, students and coaches to comprise an advisory committee to develop creative suggestions for dealing with the deficit.

“Let’s try to go into this as united as possible,” Hopkin said.

This year’s proposed hit to the activities budget is actually about $62,000 (as opposed to $100,000) due to funding sources that aren’t tied to the deficit issue, school district officials said. The proposed future $100,000 in cuts amounts to about 25 percent of the district’s activities budget annually. As to questions about why the activities budget needs to be cut, Hopkin explained that the burden of the deficit needs to be spread among the district’s departments, and not solely by cuts to staff. About 85 percent of the district’s operating budget pays for salaries and benefits, Hopkin said.

Regarding the recently discovered deficit, Hopkin said “The problem is deeper than what would show up in our internal controls.” She said it took the district’s recently hired part-time financial manager Richard Clark more than two months to discover the accounting errors that apparently created the deficit. She further explained that the district has been deemed “financially distressed” by the Utah Office of Education, allowing the district – for one year only – to use money from its capital fund for operations. Hopkin also detailed cuts to teachers’ insurance benefits, and the five furlough days that have been made to the school year, bringing the total number of days in the classroom to 175 this year.

The relatively brief meeting with parents and students was followed by a school community council meeting where Hopkin again discussed the deficit. At that meeting a committee was formed to rejuvenate the defunct Grand County Education Foundation, which has nonprofit status and could accept tax-deductible donations that could help fund certain school-related interests.

At both meetings, Hopkin fielded questions about the possible sale of real estate where Red Rock Elementary is located. That school will be folded next fall into the new kindergarten through sixth-grade facility now under construction adjacent to Helen M. Knight School.

Local parent Cindy Indergard said Monday that she was “fairly certain” a buyer and developer are interested in the Red Rock property. Though Hopkin wasn’t surprised by that news, she said even if the property was sold to generate revenue, the district couldn’t use capital funds for operating expenses, except for this year, under the school’s financially distressed status.