This blog begins the fifth year I have written a blog. It's also the 70th blog I have written. As you know I'm not the best writer or very good at grammar, but at least I try. I hope for those who take the time to read this find it worthwhile. I'm getting close to 10,000 page views, thank you for your support.
This meeting started with the recognition of Bart Cook. This was his last meeting after 17 years of board service, many of those as chairman. I didn't always agree with Bart on issues, especially when I first came onto the board, but I have a great deal of respect for him. His experience and problem solving skills will be missed, and so will his sense of humor. The next meeting Wade Christensen and I will begin our four year term of office. I will also start my 8th year on the board. Time sure flys by. Now I'm the second most senior member, behind Casey.
Roger Harrison then gave us an update of the spring sports. Both track teams won their district competition. The girls ended up second at state, the boys took seventh. The girls are sixth district softball champions, and the boys ended up third in the combined fifth and sixth district baseball. There were also many recognitions of individual accomplishments. It is truly amazing how well the Firth kids do in all sports. Thanks to all the hard working coaches. I know you don't get compensated very well for all the time you spend working with the athletes. I really appreciate your dedication to the kids.
The resignation of Lisa Nelson and the hiring of Jotien Adams was mentioned. Jotien was in attendance, she comes from Blackfoot, and will teach 1st grade. She said she is excited to be here. There are still a couple positions that offers have been made but not finalized yet. Mr. Tubbs thinks they have next years staff in place.
Julie Cederberg presented the proposed district budget for next year. The contingency fund is projected to be the same as last year, close to $800,000. The district will have an additional teacher compared to last year. Most of the increased budget amount will go to teacher and staff salaries. One income item that stood out was $85,000 from the lottery. A few years ago there was no line item for lottery income. I think the state increases or decreases the lottery money based on other state funding. Maybe this year they wanted to make the lottery look good so they credited far more money to it.
The school lunch program will need to be subsidized about $15,000 from the general fund budget to support it. I asked about the reasons for this, and if there was any plan to try and balance the lunch program budget. This issue is very complicated. In my opinion the new nutrition standards championed by Mrs. Obama are the biggest problem. Less kids all the time are eating school lunches. Less participation really hurts the program. If the free and reduced participation falls too far the district will no longer qualify for free breakfast. Julie wasn't sure, but she thought we might have dropped below the participation minimum. Changing the lunch price is also not practical. The projection for next year is to receive $180,000 in meal re-embursments, for free and reduced student meals. Paid lunch funds are only projected to add up to $50,000, so you really can't raise the lunch price for the few that pay for it. The goal has been to have the lunch program as balanced as possible. I think the lunch ladies do a great job with the challenges of all the new requirements and paperwork they have to do. I have hope they will change the requirements, but more likely nothing will change for the better.
The budget for the new heating system in the elementary is $140,000, $70,000 funded through the levy. I asked if there was progress getting a company in to make recommendations on how we go forward with the heating system. When the idea came up at the last meeting that we just replace the old boiler with a new boiler for $140,000 and still have no air conditioning, we were all disappointed. Mr. Tubbs has talked further with some heating people from Idaho Falls. I think one concern replacing the old boiler with a new one is dealing with asbestos removing the old boiler. It was determined that if the roof heating and air conditioning will work out, that the boiler room can just be closed up and left alone. I asked questions about the student occupied and non occupied funds. These funds would need to be used to help pay for the new system. The non student occupied fund balance is around $830,000, the student occupied fund is much less. I think after expenditures are taken out the balance will be around $200,000. I'm not sure about this balance. It may be more. Some expenses besides the boiler is $40,000 to complete the bus lane work, $10,000 for elementary playground maintenance, and the same for the middle school, and other repairs. The middle school will have the hall carpets removed and buffed like the high school. This budget is for $14,000. There is other money for carpets, painting and other repairs. When we find out our options for the elementary heating, we will need to decide if we can afford what we originally planned.
Julie does a very good job managing our district funds. I sure don't anticipate the need to ask for another supplemental levy, unless maybe the state funding reverses course. The funding looks like it's going in the right direction, but I remember hearing if the revenue didn't keep improving something like 5% a year they won't be able to sustain their planned school budget increases.
The teacher contract negotiations were discussed. All teachers, I think, will get a 3% raise. The district will also cover the increased insurance costs. It is good that the state is finally starting to increase teacher salaries. I hope this trend will continue.
We then moved into executive session to discuss personnel. After our discussion we came out of executive session and voted to give Mr. Tubbs a one year pay stipend of $2,000, to be reviewed for possible renewal. Mr. Tubbs a few years ago took a pay cut along with the staff. With all his responsibilities as both the Superintendent and elementary principal, we thought we should at least restore his wages closer to what he used to get.
Well that is pretty much all for this meeting. It sure is easier to manage an increase in our budget revenue than decreases. I sure hope our funding can continue to improve. Thanks for your support. If you have any questions or concerns please let me know. Thanks, Brian
No comments:
Post a Comment