The budget officers are Randy Trani and Kristi Folgel.
Currently we are looking at an updated forecast with $195,871 in the ending fund balance for the year. This is based on the March 16th update from ODE for the funding for the schools, and a more recent update of 4/3. This is money they are forecasting we will have left even if we add back the ten days that are currently scheduled for furlough. Trani pointed out that contractually we only need to add back five days, but it sounds like they will consider all ten.
ODE is planning on funding at 5.7 billion for next year and the budget is based on that number. Brad Garrett suggested several times that we budget with a lower number in mind in case the numbers came out lower, and plan on having the ability to reconvene and make changes if the numbers do come in where they are stating. This was not received well by some members of the Board. Annette Calcagno asked the same question in a different manner, stating that because of the way the budget did end up for us this year, we plan one furlough day for each week we have no school on Mondays (approximately 6 days) and that way we spread the cost out over several months instead of hitting the time off all at the end of the year. Then we could add the days back if it looks like the budget will remain stable. Mr. O' Neil opposed this saying that parents wouldn't like to have days added at the end of the year because of vacation plans. Ms. Childs stated that we will keep "going and growing" and not make cuts. She feels making cuts will affect the culture and the kids in the classroom. Mike Wilson said we should budget for what we have, and put money into a contingency fund.
The Charter is planned at 460 students for next year with a Charter budget of 2.7 million. Of that, $712,000 is expected to come to the District. This will fluctuate with the weight given to the students by the State and also with the leaving of any students from the Charter. I was told by one Charter dad that we are hemorrhaging students from the Charter, I don't know, but one mother who removed her child from the Charter looked at the student roster and said the classroom her child had been in was down 5 students from the start of the year. So, this number could be high.
There is a plan to drop two elementary teaching positions for next year. These will not be classroom positions. Music was mentioned as not being a classroom position and Ms. Dearixon was not considered a classroom position. There is also talk of eliminating the NovaNet alternative education program.
Revenue The resource room in the elementary school was mentioned as being available as a classroom or pre-school room. The Art room in the high school had a wall removed at one point to make it bigger, adding the wall back if we need more classroom space is an option being considered should we get an influx of District students.
Consideration is being given to charging $2,500 per student for full time Kindergarten. Half time kindergarten will not cost. This is not being offered as full day or half day, but Part time and Full time. Part time kids will only go two days a week, for full days. Those students who qualify for free or reduced lunch will not have to pay for full time education.
There is a plan to put a pre-school program into the school which is figured on bringing in $25,000 to the District and also a fee for service summer program where students can sign up for classes on a pay basis. Dr. Trani said he has 26 teachers interested in doing this program at this time.
These three programs are slotted to bring in $125,000 to the District for revenue.
Extra curricular budget is a hot topic. The plan by Dr. Trani is make the pay for play fees around $250 per student per sport. This is based on desiring $100,000 for the expenses, dividing it by the number of students who played last year and that is the working number. This will cover the cost of the Athletic Director and transportation. (The budget is around $75,000 for transportation because they are planning on a 30% increase across the board on any costs that includes gas. I'm personally hoping that doesn't hold true all year!) Brad Garrett asked that they give the program to the Boosters to run. This would be having the pay to play fees passed to the Boosters to fund the AD and the transportation, pay coaches because you can't expect people to donate that much time and energy without compensation, it will keep us eligible because we Will be offering a sports program so we won't lose funding. Brad also pointed out that the Budget is assuming a super human effort on the part of an outside group to make sure we have a program and we are a Public school with a private school attitude. Some Boosters feel like the Boosters are an ATM for the school and the Budget demands that the Boosters run the sports program, but they have no say in which sports get funded or how much they can afford to fund.
Dr. Trani said the Boosters have sent around $40,000 to the school so far this year, he doesn't know for sure. (I was told that the District hasn't billed the Boosters for transportation, which the Boosters were paying for, not the school.)
Mr. Garrett said it is silly to say we FUND an athletic program when we don't, and the Boosters are getting burned out.
Dr. Trani feels the Boosters earn enough to run the programs and we need to shift the paradigm to volunteer coaches and charge more on the pay to play.
Mr. O' Neil said the Boosters will keep doing fundraising and will do what they have always done to keep the kids on the fields and on the courts.
Dr. Trani said they had to hire five more JV coaches last year to cover the additional Charter students at a cost of $20,000.
When asked by Mr. Garrett who will decide on the programs offered by the District when the funding is not there, Mr. O'Neil said the District will decide. This was amended by others to the Superintendent, AD and Boosters President. These findings will then be brought to the Board.
Expenses:The big jump is in supplies. The cost is expect to go from $682,000 to $865,000. This is based on the gas cost increase (30%)
Springdale is said to be costing us $40,000 next year. This number was questioned by several people as the cost is doubled from last year and will actually be empty, not used. Dr. Trani said it was probably NOT an accurate number, that he can't drill on this number, but will look at it again. (He was asked for a breakdown on these costs and could not provide them.)
Debt service for this year is $712,000 - $464,000 going to pay off the elementary school bond. The rest going towards the remaining flex account loans.
Brad and Annette kept coming back to budgeting conservatively this year and not getting ourselves into a jam again. Brad pointed out that you aren't going to get a bond passed up here right now and Annette said the public is unhappy with the way things are going with the Board. Charlie said that isn't true and people he talks to have no problem with the school and people will come up with all kinds of reasons to not pass a bond. Annette said they are talking to different people. Brad suggested we bit the bullet now and bump class sizes up, make some cuts and stop funding crisis to crisis. He has been on the Budget committee for six years now and it keeps getting worse. We need to make some changes now. Maureen said the product coming out of the school is just getting better and better and Brad's neighbor needs to realize that biting the bullet will mean cuts and her job is to keep the kids in the classroom. That it will hurt to make cuts and she won't do them. Brad felt that doing a little now will be better than doing a lot later.
Maureen stated she feels we need to end the year with a responsible amount in the contingency fund. Brad asked what that number was? According to Dr. Trani the super low end is 3%, the more ideal range is 5-10%. It was not explained what the percentage is based on.
At the end of the meeting Stewart Childs allowed comments from the audience. I said I had a question and I was told, "Comments, not questions." Fine, I made it a comment. I said if we are spending $62,000 in AP tests and I'm hearing that the job of the Board is to keep the kids in school, shouldn't we be using that money to keep the kids in school for an additional four days. And.... I have been told by two Charter parents that the charter students don't pay for play on sports, and if this is true, shouldn't they be?
So, Dr. Trani said, "In answer to your questions", The District is only paying for its own tests this year, the Charter will be paying for their costs. Our portion is $42,000 and he has $27,000 in donations so far. He will be passing out requests for donations for the remaining $15,000. (If you are interested in AP transfers, you can go to the sites like University of Oregon AP tests and they will tell you what numbers transfer. Larry MacDougal pointed these out to me, and those threes we've been counting as passing, not so much. OSU takes threes, but most of the others require fours and fives.) He also said that this year the State did not pay for the PSAT for Corbett and he is filing a complaint because it is mandatory that they do. If that money comes through it will more than cover the costs remaining.
Maureen Childs said that we are not an elite school and we let everyone take the tests.
Regarding the Charter pay to play. He said unless they are on reduced or free lunches they have to pay. If any of you know a Charter parent who can answer this question I'd love to hear from them. What I was told was Mr. Dunton told the Charter parents that he was taking care of the fees and they didn't have to. I'm wondering if this is true, and if the $5,000 we got from the Charter for athletics was to cover the owed pay to play fees?
Anyway, next Board meeting is 4/20/11.
Next Budget meeting is 5/4/11.
Have a great week!
Tori
