Culpeper County School Board10/2/2018 10:58 AM

Culpeper County School Board10/2/2018 10:58 AM

Minutes

March 16, 2010

Page 1 of 7

CULPEPERCOUNTYSCHOOL BOARD
Minutes

March 16, 2010

A reconvened meeting of the School Board of Culpeper County was held March 16, 2010 at the School Board Office, 450 Radio Lane, Culpeper, VA. Present were: George Dasher (Stevensburg District); Elizabeth Hutchins (Cedar Mountain District); Anne Luckinbill (Salem District); Robert Houck (West Fairfax District); Robert Beard (East Fairfax District); Leanne Malulani (Jefferson District); Russell E. Jenkins (Catalpa District); Superintendent Dr. Bobbi F. Johnson, Budget Analyst Lauren Thomas, Exec. Director of Finance/Clerk Jeff Shomo, and Deputy Clerk Pearl Jamison.

The meeting reconvened at 6 p.m. and Ms. Jamison called the roll.

Mr. Dasher noted that Mr. Beard has another commitment this evening and will have to leave the meeting early.

Mr. Jenkins noted that he has a personal interest in the budget discussion because his spouse is employed in the school system. He noted that he is able to participate in the transaction fairly, objectively, and in the best interest of the public. He said that he filed a copy of his disclosure statement with the clerk on January 25thand will disclose his interest at each meeting where there is discussion pertaining to the budget.

Budget

Mr. Dasher said at the county level we have been working with a reduction of $2.3 million and that started out at $1.3 million when we had our joint meeting. He said at that meeting we asked if that would include a tax increase and the answer was, yes, 4 cents. He said it is $1.3 million down assuming 4 cents and we were later told we were not going to get a 4 cents and another million was taken out to get to $2.3 million.

Mr. Dasher said yesterday Dr. Johnson and he met with the county and learned there is an additional $750,000 that needs to be deducted at the local level. He said the $2.3 million shortfall is now $3.05 million.

He reviewed the revenue picture at this point.

w/o $750,000w/$750,000

State Revenues - $32.7 million ($3.2 million down from last year)$32.7 million

Federal Revenues - $5.2 million (equal with last year)$5.2 million

Misc. Revenues - $1.2 million$1.2 million

Local Revenues - $28.6 million or$27.9 million

Total $67.7 million or $67.0 million

Mr. Dasher shared with the board his strategy. He suggested that the board work with the $67.7 million showing a $750,000 deficit. He said the budget would not be balanced and he would also like to include a list of what would be affected if we were forced to reduce $750,000.

Mr. Dasher said he shared his strategy with the county today.

Mr. Beard said he does have a meeting scheduled. He said he supports the general approach outlined. He said if the board gets deadlocked he can be back at 7 p.m. Mr. Beard left the meeting.

Ms. Thomas reviewed page 1 of the handout. She said the numbers are based on the latest State numbers from March 14. She briefly described each of the new items noted in yellow (revised calc tool, reduction from county, PPO plan elimination, adjustment to school allocation balances, reduction to teacher RIF).

Mr. Dasher said the position eliminations that were discussed at the core subject level in the high school will result in increasing student teacher ratios are still in the budget. He said it reflects 8 teachers instead of 11.

Mr. Dasher noted we are no longer showing the $800,000 to cover the VRS increase. He said according to the General Assembly we will not see an increase in VRS. Mr. Shomo said we should see a rate reduction.

Mr. Dasher said the PPO Plan Elimination will keep us in sync with the county health insurance plans offered.

Ms. Hutchins asked what the estimated revenue increase was from the State. Mr. Shomo said the revenues actually decreasedby about $190,000.

Mr. Dasher said when Dr. Johnson briefs the budget the charts will reflect a $750,000 imbalance. He said the last chart should show how we can get $750,000.

Ms. Hutchins asked for clarification on the school balance adjustments. Ms. Thomas said there were some residual balances that were in the school accounts that were leftover that were pulled out to make everything match. Dr. Johnson said it does not cut them further. She said they still are at $50 per student.

Ms. Thomas said, at this point, we are removing 55.9 positions from the budget.

Ms. Thomas shared with the board how the $750,000 shortage can be accomplished(10 teacher positions RIF and 16 paraeducator RIF).

Ms. Hutchins asked where these positions would come from. Dr. Johnson said she has not decided, it was just brought about today.

Dr. Johnson said there is language which allows more flexibility in the mandated positions; however, it has not been discussed in much detail.

Ms. Luckinbill asked how many paraeducators would be left at each school. Dr. Johnson said it would leave 7 at each elementary school. She asked how many we have currently. Ms. Thomas said 10. Mr. Dasher said that does impact instruction.

Ms. Hutchins said everything impacts instruction.

Mr. Dasher said this budget reduces the perpupil costs. Ms. Thomas said that takes us back five years. Mr. Dasher said that is the best indicator of what we are doing to instruction.

Ms. Hutchins said we still have to meet the standards of 2010 and the bar has increased.

Ms. Hutchins said she would like to have an indication as to where the teaching positions would come from. She said she knows staff will do their best to do the least damage.

Dr. Johnson said we were so hopeful that more staff would retire. Ms. Hutchins said we still have staff considering retirement.

Mr. Dasher said he has not given up on pushing back on the $750,000. He said he will continue to “run that up the flagpole”.

Mr. Dasher said the additional pages support the $750,000 shortage.

Ms. Thomas further reviewed the budget details.

Ms. Hutchins noted the facilities line was zeroed out. Dr. Johnson said yes, there was just one thing.

Mr. Dasher noted that food service helps with the miscellaneous revenue. Mr. Shomo said we are billing food service $155,000 for indirect costs.

Mr. Dasher said the additional $750,000 will affect instruction. Ms. Thomas noted some will be in administration because of the COBRA subsidy and unemployment.

Mr. Dasher said when we RIF employees we are required to cover the employees COBRA for a period of 24 months and it also affects unemployment. Mr. Shomo said we could be looking at $100,000 in additional expenses for RIF.

Mr. Jenkins asked if anything else could be delayed another year from maintenance. Mr. Shomo said we can’t cut anymore from maintenance. He said they were hit last year and this year. He noted that Mr. Parkinson has redone contracts. He said any savings will be from things not having to be done. He said it can’t be cut because in a normal operating year 80% of the budget is spent. He said if something else goes wrong we would be pressed. He said after this year there is no more money left in maintenance.

Ms. Thomas said a lot of the cuts in the other departments are labor and benefits not expenses.

Mr. Shomo noted the miscellaneous revenue for tuition reimbursement for ED/HI for $500,000. He said this is a new billing process. He said reimbursements are typically slow coming. Dr. Johnson said we just received reimbursement from late last spring.

Mr. Shomo said we have always had a plus in the miscellaneous line. He said we are down to one or two clients renting our buildings on weekends.

Mr. Shomo said the budget reflects the increased sports fees at the middle/high school level. He said we will push hard on collecting the fees.

Ms. Malulani said we need to be aware that if a middle school child is sitting on the bench the parent will want some type of financial compensation. They won’t want to pay to have their child sit on the bench.

Ms. Hutchins also expressed concern with how a child will be treated if they are injured or don’t keep their grades up. Mr. Dasher said it is team registration rather than pay to play. He said no refunds will be issued.

Mr. Dasher said the administrative committee will need to come up with a policy to govern athletic fees.

Dr. Johnson said you check the grades when the season starts. She said if they are eligible to make the team, they should be fine.

Dr. Johnson said you pay with traveling teams and there is no guarantee for playing time.

Ms. Hutchins said we need to be clear in the policy relative to the money collection.

Dr. Johnson suggested a designated time to turn money in to the bookkeeper.

Ms. Hutchins said the policy needs to be in place before the end of this year.

Ms. Malulani asked if there will be additional revenue from the lottery. Mr. Shomo said that will now fall under a block grant. He said the lottery will be in the neighborhood of $800,000. He said the Senate version of the bill will restrict how funds are disbursed – technology, textbooks, etc.

Mr. Shomo said we usually receive $1.3 million to help us supplement retirement. He said it has been reduced by $500,000. He said hopefully we can pick up the expense savings. He said Orange and Fauquier are also waiting to see what the final rate is and then make decisions. Dr. Johnson noted that typically rates are set in June. Mr. Shomo said he hopes the new calc tool will explain the rate.

Ms. Malulani said this is just another area we are expected to prepare a budget where we rely on the state for our figures to calculate and they are not giving us those. Mr. Shomo said we have not got the final adjustments.

Mr. Shomo said we will have some built in cuts for next year because of stimulus money going away. He said Dr. Johnson will cover this in her presentation tonight. Ms. Jenkins asked how much the ARRA funds were. Ms. Thomas said $1.3 million.

Mr. Jenkins asked what school construction covers. Mr. Shomo said the state gives us money and it helps pay for building projects and it can be used as payments against debt service. He said it is a way to channel money to help with projects.

Mr. Dasher said he would like to start a register of things going away next year.

Mr. Shomo highlighted the retirement expense in instruction which is $5.1 million. He said this is a sizable chunk to make an adjustment on. He said this number could be adjusted with the final calc tools from the State. Dr. Johnson said we know rates are not going up and we understand they are expected to go down but we don’t know how much. She said if they go down it will come off there and throughout the budget. Mr. Shomo said they always talk about the professional rate going down. Dr. Johnson said we may have to pay it back.

Mr. Shomo said after FY12 they want us to pay back the money and put it into the VRS plan.

Mr. Jenkins asked what the other benefits are in category 2800. Ms. Thomas said “Cash Match”.

Ms. Thomas noted the deduction of textbooks of $348,311. Mr. Shomo said that may pose a problem next year if we have to do a match. He said we may have to shift money from local categories to meet the match. Mr. Shomo said it is important to note we are pushing the envelope on a lot of the SOQ issues. He said on the annual report the superintendent is required to sign off on compliance. He said in the past we have been comfortable with that. He said next year we might need to move money to help with maintaining compliance. He said the title money is “sticky”. He said we try our best to do that. He said with the State we may have more leeway. Dr. Johnson said they have outlined several areas but they are mostly people not textbooks.

Ms. Malulani asked how much they might come back to us for. Mr. Shomo said in the past they reimbursed us $200,000 to textbooks so we have to spend it to get it.

Ms. Luckinbill asked where the adjustment is to the instructional supplements. Ms. Thomas said under category 1121 (Page 1 of 39) and 2100 (Page 3 of 39).

Dr. Johnson noted that all supplement scales (academic/athletic) have been adjusted and are in sync.

Ms. Hutchins asked for clarification on medical and athletic supplies (Page 20 of 39). Mr. Shomo said those are athletic training supplies.

Ms. Thomas said the field maintenance contracts have been reduced by $23,000. She said we had budgeted $35,000. Mr. Shomo said the reason is the football field and the competition fields. He said this will be a transition year, at best, on how to handle them. He said we have invested too much money in those fields to get to the level we are and then just let them go. He said we are looking really hard to see what the best value is. He said it is a huge investment.

Mr. Shomo said we have maintained utilities at level. He said we will have to have good weather or we will have to beg for money. He said we have been real aggressive in this area.

Mr. Dasher said we heat and cool 1,300,000 square feet. He said our per square footage price is very competitive compared to schools around us.

Mr. Dasher noted that electric, gas, water and sewer is almost $2 million.

Mr. Dasher asked what budget number was used for diesel fuel. Mr. Shomo said $2.62 per gallon and we are currently at $2.42 per gallon.

Mr. Shomo said the workers comp line has remained level. He said we have kept it level by being in the co-op for insurance.

Mr. Dasher asked if we insure the replacement value of our buildings. Mr. Shomo said we insure for buildings and contents and it is evaluated every few years.

Mr. Shomo said we need latitude with respect to machinery and equipment. He said if something happens we need to be able to cover it.

Mr. Dasher reiterated that the budget being presented is not balanced by $750,000.

Mr. Jenkins said he has a real problem showing how we can get the $750,000. He said he feels we need to let the Board of Supervisors figure out how to do it. He said they are just laying it in our laps to take care of it.

Ms. Malulani said it is not the supervisor’s job to dictate how the school division spends the money. She said we are saying we need the $750,000. She said she would not support cutting salaries. She said the School Board needs to determine what can be eliminated.

Mr. Dasher said he doesn’t support showing any detail on the $750,000. He said additional cuts will impact instruction even more.

Ms. Malulani said she can’t, in good conscience, include anything that doesn’t include the $750,000.

Ms. Hutchins agreed with Mr. Jenkins; however, she said explaining the school division’s plan to the supervisors regarding how to make the additional cuts is a better way of handling the situation.

On motion of Ms. Malulani seconded by Ms. Luckinbill, the School Board approved the FY11 operating budget as presented.

Ms. Hutchins said this budget makes her ill. She said we are undoing the work that has been done in the past 10 years to bring our educational standards up with those around us and we haven’t given raises in three years and now we are asking our staff to do more with fewer people and still come up to a higher level. She said it makes me ill.

Mr. Dasher said we will also be in violation of a few SOQ requirements.

Motion carried 6-0 by voice vote (Mr. Beard was absent.)

On motion of Ms. Malulani seconded by Ms. Hutchins, the School Board voted to adjourn at 7:26 p.m. Motion carried 6-0 by voice vote. (Mr. Beard was absent.)

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JEFFREY R. SHOMO, CLERKGEORGE T. DASHER, CHAIR