School District 166 finances were once again the focus of the school board meeting on Thursday, April 9, 2015 as Superintendent Beth Schwarz gave a budget forecast for fiscal year 2016.
Schwarz asked the board to consider a number of budget cutting measures such as assigning early childhood duties and/or a social studies class to Principals Gwen Carman and Adam Nelson; instead of replacing the retiring social studies teacher, reassigning those duties to other teachers; eliminating choir as an elective; postponing the elementary school roofing project and playground replacement; reducing hours of custodial workers; and postponing the purchase of new math curriculum.
Superintendent Schwarz and the school board had significant discussion of the pros and cons of all of the suggestions and concern was expressed about teachers working outside their area of expertise, under a “variance.”
Schwarz said as enrollment drops and the budget gets tighter, the school district will have to use variances more and more. She said allowing a teacher to work under a variance can keep him or her on staff full-time, something that benefits the school and the employee. Schwarz said the two teachers who would be taking on the social studies classes are probationary, both have experience working with middle school students and both are interesting in going into the social studies program. “They want to be in our community,” she said.
Eliminating choir is troubling, said Schwarz, noting that the “rule of thumb” is to give an elective three years to see if it has enough participants to make it cost-effective. It has only been available for one year but with only seven students interested, eliminating the elective has to be considered, said Schwarz. “The cutoff is usually 10 students. I’m sensing a lot of interest from the community, but not from the kids.”
Board Member Deb White said, “But it means a lot to those seven kids.”
Postponing the elementary roof replacement should be okay, said Schwarz, but it may eventually become urgent. The current playground equipment is adequate, but it too is nearing the end of its lifespan. The board reiterated its wish to see grant fund sought for playground equipment.
Schwarz recommended against reducing custodial staff, noting that building cleanliness would suffer and times to see something repaired would increase.
Postponing the purchase of new curriculum for the math department one year would not be a bad idea, said Schwarz, noting that there may be changes to the curriculum based on the school’s participation in the Educational Innovation Partnership. The problem is postponing the math curriculum pushes all the other programs back. The science curriculum would have been next year and this would postpone that review as well.
Board Member Terry Collins asked if any administrative reductions had been considered. Schwarz said no, district staff had already been cut back.
Board Member Chris Goettl asked if the school could see savings by pushing back the parking lot expansion or the industrial tech remodel and expansion. Schwarz said that wouldn’t help as those projects have specific funds earmarked just for those projects.
Schwarz noted that if the school board adopted all of the budget adjustments recommended, the 2016 fiscal year forecast called for revenue of $6,769,061 and expenditures of $6,789,210. She said reductions totaling $20,149 would need to be made.
Schwarz told the school board that it could decide to leave the school’s budget as is, knowing that it would require more use of the district’s fund balance, which is already lower than the school board would like—projected to be $170,000 in June 2016.
Schwarz pointed out a couple of bright spots in the budget report. Principal Adam Nelson had managed to assign faculty members to serve as substitutes when needed. Having personnel “in the building” to serve as a substitute will save the school approximately $18,000, said Schwarz.
Schwarz also said she and Lori Backlund had worked on the letter that goes out to parents with information on participating in the free and reduced lunch program. Making some changes to the forms that made them easier to understand led to increased enrollment in the program, which brings in approximately $90,000 more to the district.
No decision was made on the various budget reductions and Schwarz told the board she was hopeful that Governor Dayton’s focus on education and potential use of the state budget surplus for schools would present a better financial picture. Parking lot expansion moving ahead
On March 10, 2015, the school board accepted the low base bid from Edwin E. Thoreson, Inc. for the school parking lot expansion of $134,293. At that time the board asked Superintendent Schwarz to ask for bids for other alternatives in addition to the base bid, such as paving the increased lot and adding some parallel parking spots. Thoreson, Inc. was again the low bidder for the additional work totaling $52,377, which the board approved unanimously.
The board also directed Superintendent Schwarz to seek bids for phase 2 of the parking lot expansion, noting that it would be more cost effective to have all of the work completed at the same time. Board Member Deb White said the school grounds are public property and need to be taken care of. She pointed out that all taxpayers pay the abatement bonds, so it is the best source of funding for such projects. “It’s cheap, cheap, money,” she said.
White added, “I don’t want to wait until someone gets hurt out there to say, ‘Gee, I wish we had…’”
The board passed a resolution to move forward with an abatement bond of $236,000 to be repaid over four years. A public hearing will be held to share the abatement bond information with the public on Thursday, May 21 in the Jane Mianowski Conference Center at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts. Board Member Terry Collins asked that drawings of the parking lot expansion be available to the public at that meeting.
Board Member Sissy Lunde said the parking lot project was discussed at the latest Safe Routes to School (SRTS) meeting. Lunde said the group feels there will be a need for parent and community education about the new parking area. She said she and other members of the SRTS group would be willing to be on hand to help direct traffic and explain the changes, if needed.
In other business
. Superintendent Schwarz reminded the board that seventh-grader Adam Dorr had advanced to the National Geography Bee competition in Louisville, Kentucky. She said she believes that students who advance to a national competition should be supported and asked the board to consider contributing $1,500 toward travel and expenses from the school’s gifted and talented funds. The board agreed to do so.
. Principal Gwen Carman arrived at the end of the school board meeting, having been at the parent information meeting for Sawtooth Preschool and a potential Headstart program. When she arrived, Carman said the meeting had been well attended with approximately 35 children represented. She said a lot of good questions were asked. The exact offerings for preschool and Headstart will not be known until the school finds out what sort of early childhood education funding passes at the state legislature.
. The board passed a resolution to terminate the employment of paraprofessional JoAnn Olson on the grounds that she has failed to return to work or provide medical evidence when required to do so.
. The board discussed the memorandum of understanding submitted by the Cook County Education Association regarding a request for leave to care for a newborn child within a year of the birth of a child, which would allow a teacher to take the summer break and then use her 12 weeks of accumulated sick leave to be with her newborn. Although the board was sympathetic to the request and Board Member Collins said he believed that the CCEA contract language was ambiguous enough to allow the request, the board said it needed more specific dates. The board directed Superintendent Schwarz to get more information.
Leave a Reply