Proposed district cuts include bowling

As the Creston Community School District looks at another year of decreased enrollment and a deficit budget, administration is working hard to find possible budget cuts that minimally impact the staff and students.

Between an enrollment decrease of 44.8 students, estimated operating budget increases and staff pay adjustments, the district expects a total budget increase of about $900,000.

The school board was given a handful of possible budgetary reduction items, including suspending the bowling program and absorbing two positions, which, along with increased state funding, would bring the estimated budget gap down to $250,000.

CCSD Superintendent Deron Stender specified no one would lose their jobs with the position absorptions, as the current staff members in these roles are moving to other positions.

“Right here, there’s no harm. Bowling would probably be the only thing, but that’s it,” Stender said. “We’re going to have to do this again next year; the numbers are going to have to justify the programs that we’re keeping, and we’ll keep looking deeper and deeper.”

While losing the bowling team would be hard for the students involved, Stender said it was a possibility the district has looked at for a number of years.

“We’ve talked about this probably every year for five years. You’ve seen our numbers have gone down,” Stender said. “We’ve been talking one more year potentially for the last five years. Then the [Osceola] bowling alley burned down.”

The team is not able to use the bowling alley at the Creston Family Fun Center as the lanes do not meet state competition regulations. Creston athletes have used Alley Bowl in Osceola for practices and home meets but had to move further from home with the loss in late January.

“The girls had the state qualifying meet at Adel, so they went up to Adel to practice. Our boys have been going up to Staurt and have practices there and then they finished up [Monday] with state qualifying,” Activities Director Scott Driskell said. “We’re at a competitive disadvantage not having something local, not only in terms of lanes that are quality but also programming. When bowling has been successful, those kids participated in youth leagues and bowled more than just November to February, and we just don’t have that.”

Cutting the bowling teams could potentially save the district $18,000.

Other potential savings include about $80,000 through operational sharing, the upcoming retirement of Business Manager Billie Jo Greene, the temporary cutting of freshmen coaches for football and girls basketball and extra funding from the TLC and TQPD funds, programs which were ended in early 2025.

The district is also hoping for a 2% increase in State Supplemental Aid, a per-pupil funding rate for Iowa public schools. According to state code, SSA should be set by Feb. 11. While the governor suggested a 2% increase in her Condition of the State in January, the House and Senate have yet to agree.

The Senate approved a 1.75% increase last week, while the House approved a 2% increase previously and is now promoting a 2.25% increase. A 2% increase would bring in an additional $205,292 in revenue.

Stender emphasized nothing with the budget was final yet.

“Here’s your potential budget adjustments for FY 27. When I say it’s potential, these are things you’re thinking about, these are things that our community members and some things you’re seeing for the first time,” Stender said. “The administration has been working on this since November, moving a lot of stones to find out what we can find to make things work out to minimize that deficit that we have up there.”

The board will further discuss budgetary issues next week during their budget workshop, scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 25 at 257 Swan St. Decisions regarding the budget will be made in March.