Post by Logan on Jul 2, 2016 17:01:24 GMT -6
In December 2014, the week Pam Seipp became interim superintendent of Runge schools, the tiny South Texas district held a symbolic groundbreaking for schools and sports facilities to be paid for by a $22 million bond that local voters overwhelmingly approved just as oil prices began to slip.
Seipp’s main responsibility since then?
“The bearer of bad news,” she says.
Four months into the job, she had to inform the board of trustees that local property values were expected to drop by more than half from the previous year because of a major slowdown in oil and gas drilling, and that the $6 million savings account the 300-student district had built up during the recent boom would quickly evaporate. She delivered a similar message this year with property values expected to plummet another 42 percent amid the lingering low oil prices that have brought drilling in the state — and across the U.S. — to a near halt.
The district is now operating on a deficit budget and moving to restructure its bond because it can’t afford payments.
Read more: www.texastribune.org/2016/07/02/oil-patch-schools-bracing-budget-nightmare/
Seipp’s main responsibility since then?
“The bearer of bad news,” she says.
Four months into the job, she had to inform the board of trustees that local property values were expected to drop by more than half from the previous year because of a major slowdown in oil and gas drilling, and that the $6 million savings account the 300-student district had built up during the recent boom would quickly evaporate. She delivered a similar message this year with property values expected to plummet another 42 percent amid the lingering low oil prices that have brought drilling in the state — and across the U.S. — to a near halt.
The district is now operating on a deficit budget and moving to restructure its bond because it can’t afford payments.
Read more: www.texastribune.org/2016/07/02/oil-patch-schools-bracing-budget-nightmare/