Culpeper County School Board 4/30/2007 ~ 8:35:12 AM
Minutes
April 18, 2007
Page 1
CULPEPER COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD
Minutes
April 18, 2007
A budget work session of the School Board of Culpeper County was held April 18, 2007 in the School Board Central Office (Colin Owens Conference Room) at 450 Radio Lane at 6:00 p.m.
Present were Elizabeth Hutchins (Cedar Mountain District), Chair; Robert Beard (East Fairfax District); George Dasher (Stevensburg District), Vice-Chair; Robert Jenkins III (Catalpa District), Division Superintendent Dr. David Cox, Executive Director of Administrative Services Dr. Larry Carter, Parliamentarian Eric Conti, Budget Analyst Lauren Willis-Thomas, Clerk of the Board Jeff Shomo, and Deputy Clerk Pearl Jamison.
Jennifer McCauley (Salem District) joined the meeting at 6:11 p.m. and Leanne Jenkins (Jefferson District) joined the meeting at 6:40 p.m. Claudia Vento (West Fairfax District) was out of the state due to work.
At 6:04 p.m. Ms. Hutchins called the meeting to order and Dr. Cox called the roll.
On motion of Mr. Dasher seconded by Mr. Jenkins, the Board went into closed session immediately regarding:
[a] Discussion of personnel matters of Named Employee A
(relative to performance) as permitted by the Code of Virginia
2.2-3711 (A) (1)
Motion carried 4-0 by voice vote.
On motion of Mr. Dasher seconded by Mr. Jenkins, the Board ended the closed session at 6:40 p.m. and certified by the following roll call vote that only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements and only the items included in the motion to go into closed session were discussed:
YEAS: 5
Robert Beard
George Dasher
Elizabeth Hutchins
Robert L. Jenkins III
Jennifer McCauley
NAYS: 0
ABSENT: 2
Leanne Jenkins
Claudia Vento
Dr. Cox said last night Mr. Bossio presented his budget recommendations to the Board of Supervisors. He said they also had a budget hearing on the proposed tax rate. He said the Board of Supervisors will set the tax rate next Wednesday, April 25, 2007 at 10 a.m. Dr. Cox said the Board of Supervisors advertised the proposed tax rate at 59 cents. Dr. Cox said this is an equalization year and they have to determine what the equalization rate is. He said that rate is 52 cents. Mr. Bossio presented a 56 cents tax rate. Dr. Cox said the operating budget would benefit from $3 million in additional county money. Dr. Cox said based on projected ADM and cost of competing we are looking at $2 million in additional state funds. Dr. Cox said they recommended $970,000 in additional CIP money. He said the funding source for the CIP is not the tax rate or generation of new tax dollars. He said they anticipated that $970,000 would be our fund balance from this year. Mr. Shomo said the fund balance is from the auditors balance for the FY06. Dr. Cox said the $2.9 million that was in the CIP from FY05 was used to fund Yowell Elementary School.
Dr. Cox said the Board of Supervisors may set the tax rate at 59 cents or lower because they advertised 59 cents. He said the best possible scenario would be if they set the tax rate at 59 cents and give us the $3 million in the budget and $1.8 million to fund our operating budget.
Ms. McCauley asked if they set the rate at 59 cents if we would automatically get the funding. Dr. Cox said no but they could give us the additional 3 cents.
Mr. Dasher said during the public hearing there were a number of people who supported education.
Dr. Cox said staff asked to come together tonight to discuss the official recommendation. Dr. Cox said we have presented a budget that requires $11 million in additional revenue to fund the budget approved by the School Board. He said if we receive $5 million our deficit is $6 million. He said staff has prepared numbers. He said the purpose tonight is not to make any decisions. He said when the Board of Supervisors set the tax rate and we know the amount of money we will deal with, we will formalize a recommendation for consideration at the May 14th meeting. He said the School Board may want to have another work session before they formally consider revising the budget after we know what the exact revenues are.
Dr. Cox said his recommendations are presented in terms of priority (See first handout.).
1. Raises - $3.4 million
(Dr. Cox said the raise recommendations seek to get employees to the midpoint salary range within a 13 county area.)
2. Inflation – $875,000
3. 10 New Teaching Positions - $566,449
(Dr. Cox said the proposed budget breaks out the staffing positions for the new elementary and new high school over a two year period. Dr. Conti said there were 64 instructional positions in the budget of which 45 were teachers. Ms. Hutchins asked if there is a breakdown of the 10 positions. Dr. Cox said 4 elementary, 2 middle school and 4 high school. Dr. Cox said he is not happy with this decision.
4. New Positions – $357,148
(Dr. Cox reviewed the new positions recommended. Discussion ensued about being able to find qualified staff midyear – especially administrative staff.)
5. Special Education - $670, 098 (six teachers)
6. Textbooks - $442,735
7. Instructional Student Allocations - $54,115
8. Masters Supplements to $2500 - $199,332
9. Supplement Scale Increase to $38,000 - $146,888
(Dr. Cox said the stipends are based on the beginning teacher scale.)
10. Substitute Increase - $76,034
(Dr. Cox said this is to increase the daily rate paid to substitute teachers.)
11. Maintenance Items - $154,569
12. Computer Replacement - $300,000
13. Transportation – Fix Extra Runs and Double Run Pay - $220,781
(Dr. Cox said the double runs currently are paid at half rate. He said with this recommendation an employee would be paid at their full rate for the primary run and second run.)
14. Employee Match - $108,646
Total Estimated Expenditures - $7,573,976
Estimated Balance (Deficient) - $2,649,922
Dr. Cox said if we get an additional $1.8 million we are still $1 million short.
Mr. Jenkins left the meeting at 7:28 p.m.
Mr. Dasher asked if we could add another column to show the actual amount that was requested. Mr. Shomo said this is the requested amount less the additional positions that were requested. Mr. Shomo said those positions equated to the additional $3.5 million in positions.
Ms. Hutchins said there are items in the budget that cannot be touched – VRS, insurance, fleet fuel, and utilities.
Mr. Shomo said the second handout reflects the proposed salary increases per position.
Mr. Shomo said the third handout reflects the revenue comparison over a 7 year period.
Mr. Shomo said the fourth handout reflects the general fund summary. Mr. Shomo said the numbers reflected on this page reflect the actual numbers on the audit document. Mr. Shomo said the school board local dollars has been very consistent. He referenced the percentage of the budget the school board has received over the years. Dr. Cox said while the percent of monies generated from the county technically goes to the school system and as the debt service increases the percentage of operating dollars decreases.
Ms. Hutchins said the Board of Supervisors currently have $12 million in the budget for renovation of the high school. Dr. Cox said we have been very clear about the CIP discussions that the first step is a master plan that identifies the scope of the renovation at CHS and the ability to accomplish those in phases. Ms. Hutchins said we voted on a resolution over a year ago regarding funding for the master plan. Dr. Cox said two years ago the old pipes at CHS froze and broke which caused a lot of issues. Dr. Cox said the maintenance staff does a good job of keeping the old stuff up and running. He said the main chiller at CHS is over 35 years old and is still running.
Ms. McCauley asked what our oldest school is. Ms. Thomas said Sycamore Park is the oldest school. It has had an addition but not a renovation. Mr. Dasher suggested we send a letter to the Board of Supervisors asking the status of the money to renovate CHS.
Dr. Cox said there has been some confusion about the money the Board of Supervisors borrowed for renovating the campus at CHS. He said the Board of Supervisors commissioned an independent study as to whether it should be a mega high school. He said they concluded to build a new high school. He said there was a site plan to direct the traffic behind CMS. He said there was $2.5 million secured when they borrowed money for the new high school. Dr. Cox said there is some notion that that money is still available for the purpose of renovating the high school. Dr. Cox said that was part of the $7.4 million appropriated in cash for the Yowell Elementary School plus the fund balance.
Dr. Cox said he has been told the $2.5 million is not available for funding the high school site plan renovation.
Dr. Conti said this process started with the equation “program + enrollment = staff”. He said if they set the tax rate on Wednesday he is ready to present the FY09 budget on Tuesday. He said we asked for $3.9 million and $4.8 million next year to spread it out. He reviewed the positions that would be eliminated to balance the budget. He said if we don’t hire a new choral teacher for the new high school we would have to half the program we currently have. He said programs would be inequitable if we don’t get funding. He said there is a cost to losing teachers and we have teachers threatening to leave this year. He said the new teachers aren’t leaving, it’s the veteran teachers. He said he is thankful for all we get but he very frustrated.
Dr. Cox said VRS benefits are calculated on the highest three years of the employee’s salary; therefore, they are leaving to get the additional bump in VRS.
Dr. Conti said we have two quality schools being built and we need staff to run them. Ms. Hutchins said the most expensive instructional program is Career and Technical. Dr. Conti said over 70% of our students take Career and Technical courses.
Ms. McCauley asked if we have an evaluation process for Governor’s School, Career Academy, or AP. She asked if we are asking the students to help us evaluate the effectiveness of the program. Dr. Conti said there are 3 teachers dedicated to the Career Academy program and even if we didn’t have the program we would still need the 3 teachers. Dr. Cox said the Career Partners group evaluates the Career Academy. Ms. McCauley asked if we are asking students to fill out a class evaluations. Dr. Conti said the dualenrollment students are required to complete an evaluation. Dr. Cox said he is not aware of a student questionnaire that is completed. Ms. McCauley said she would like to understand the value of the classes to students. Dr. Cox said AP classes give our students a boost in entering college. Further discussion ensued.
Mr. Beard said what we really need to do is make philosophical decisions about what we value – programs, arts, music, raises, etc. He said we can’t do everything we believe we should do. He said we need to determine what we are going to do. Dr. Conti said he would rather have great programs and great staff in old buildings. Mr. Beard said we need to decide which things we love that we have to give up so the things we need we are able to do well. Ms. McCauley said we all hold dear many of the things in the budget. She said we need to decide where our true values lie. Ms. Hutchins said we need to base it on providing the service to the most number of children. Ms. McCauley said we need to know how effective we are serving our community. Ms. Hutchins said this board voted on a commitment to Governor’s School for 3 years. Mr. Dasher asked Dr. Conti to come up with some very simple talking points that can be used to have a discussion with the community. He said we need to demonstrate the problem we have. Ms. Jenkins said we are bursting at the seams. Dr. Conti said we have been understaffed over the past two years. He said we have a growing diversity in Culpeper. Dr. Cox said the numbers are not suddenly large. They just keep rolling forward because we have been under funded for many years. Dr. Conti said we want to be number one but we are not being funded at the number one level.
Mr. Beard said we are going to have larger class sizes. He asked what guidance is needed from the board. Mr. Beard said there are some things we have to do. He said we can’t cut math. Mr. Beard said he wants to know the bare bones that have to be provided. Dr. Cox said in the basic high school program we are not required to offer advance levels of math or higher levels of foreign language. He asked the staff to develop a bare bones program offering. Ms. Jenkins said she feels the Board of Supervisors wants us to price out each program. Ms. McCauley said we need to make sure the meetings are highly publicized. She said it would be beneficial to know the cost of the extra things as well as what is required. Dr. Cox said the board would like staff to prepare numbers for minimum programs at CHS and reducing it further down – extra curricular and resources.
Ms. McCauley said she would like us to look at different percentages on raises. Ms. Hutchins said if we want to maintain quality programs we have to maintain good salaries. Mr. Dasher cautioned that if we put out minimum requirements that could be what we get. Mr. Beard said he feels the majority of the board would rather cut programs before salaries. Mr. Beard said we need to find out what our community values is. Ms. Jenkins said we can do the bare minimum but we may lose AYP and funding. Dr. Cox said the school board’s mission is to maximize potential of all learners but we are talking about minimizing opportunities. Ms. McCauley said we need to understand what the community expects no matter if it is cutting salaries or programs. Mr. Beard said we have to decide the basic minimum and what comes next – what’s most beneficial for most students. Ms. Hutchins said based on the funding we are getting we are down to reading, writing, and arithmetic. Ms. Jenkins said she is not willing to cut salaries. Ms. Jenkins said teachers will not stay here if they receive additional students and no extra money.