School Board Still Searching For Line Item Budget
Federal and Food Nutrition Budgets for the fiscal year 2015-2016 were both approved by the Jefferson County School Board in a called meeting at the Department of Education on Friday morning, May 22, 2015. However, the Board continued a stalemate on line items and has failed to lock in line items on their General Budget for the fiscal year 2015-2016. Though the Board debated the budget the third time, no consensus could be reached on which line items should shoulder the more than $300,000 worth of line item cuts.
Since their last meeting on May 19, 2015, the revenue situation had improved $95,000 with additional BEP allocations but that number was off set with the loss of $65,757 during Tuesday evening’s Budget Committee meeting where the Budget Committee elected to fund the Schools at the same dollar level as last year, rather than funding in pennies on the property tax, which are worth more than in the previous budget cycle. Meaning, the Department of Education netted out less than a $30,000 increase since their last look at the budget. Also changed in Tuesday’s budget proposal were the salary increases to Principals, Assistant Principals and Supervisors. Several meeting ago, the School Board had directed that cuts be made to those line items,as well as others, to hold salaries at last year’s level with no increase. The most recent budget shows a 2.33% increase to the base salary of Principals and Assistants, as well as a 1.5% increase for Supervisors. According to information provided by the DOE, certified employees must be treated in the same manner, thus the increase to Principals and Assistant’s base salary. As was requested by the Board, an uplift in the beginning hourly wage on the salary schedule of 75 cents per hour for the lowest four classified employee categories and 47 cents per hour for the fifth lowest category was included in the budget. The remainder of the classified employees will receive a 2% raise and certified personnel will receive a 2.33% increase.
A core issue in the budget debate is the use of textbook money to balance the budget. Initially, the Department of Education had budgeted $575,956 predominately for new math textbooks. After receiving the line item requested cuts of the Board, the DOE brought back a second option that uses $421,373 of funds in the textbook line to balance the budget. The DOE stated that new textbooks were optional this year and the current book would not cycle out for replacement for another two years. However, Board Member questioned why they ( the Board) were requested to adopt a new math book earlier this year and why such a large expense was included in the budget if it was not necessary. Also of concern was how the funds would be replaced in two years if they become an avenue to balance the budget.
After debating the pro and cons of the various budgets, the Board, by consent, requested that Jefferson County Finance Director Potts return with a hybrid version of the budgets that have already been presented. Finance Director Potts encouraged the Board to have a line item budget locked in before the final review of the Budget Committee on May 26th. The Board will meet to review and discuss the fiscal year 2015-2016 budget on Tuesday afternoon, with the hope of taking action and locking in line items before the final review.
