Sean C. Morgan
The School District 55 Budget Committee declined to approve the proposed 2014-15 budget during its meeting Thursday evening and was scheduled to meet again Tuesday evening to discuss what to do with kindergarten and how to purchase new buses.
The budget proposes adding all-day kindergarten next school year and the purchase of four new buses.
Federal Title I funds will be reduced next school year. As a result the proposed budget cuts “extended kindergarten,” a program that provided full-day kindergarten two days per week for kindergarteners who need a little extra help.
In its place, the proposed General Fund budget, with funding from the state government and from local property taxes, includes full-day kindergarten for all students. A less expensive alternative would provide kindergarteners two full days each week for families who want it.
In 2015-16, the state will begin providing funds for all-day kindergarten. Right now, kindergarten students are counted for a half day for state funding.
Board member Chanz Keeney spearheaded the committee’s discussion about kindergarten, he said. With cuts in PE, elementary music and the school resource police officer in the past, he had been hoping to restore some of them in next year’s budget.
If math scores are down, then maybe the district should spend the additional funds on math teachers, he said.
“All-day kindergarten is the latest and greatest coming out of Salem,” Keeney said. “And I’m not going for it.”
Test scores are low, and he is concerned about graduation rates, he said. His question to said Supt. Don Schrader, who proposed all-day kindergarten, is how the all-day kindergartenwill help School District 55 graduate seniors.
“Where can we put money to help us right now?” Keeney asked.
He said he would support keeping what the district has now, but he isn’t sold on adding more next school year.
“It’s just a funding issue. I’m not against it,” he said, adding that he wants to discuss the issue further.
The committee also discussed whether to purchase all four buses in 2014-15 or pay for them over a five-year period.
The proposed budget includes a proposal to buy four for $442,000 to replace 16-year-old buses. The state would reimburse 70 percent of the purchase over seven years.
Some committee members were concerned about the shrinking ending fund balance, unspent cash that is carried into the next year, Schrader said. That carryover serves as the district’s contingency fund and beginning fund balance for the following year.
The district will end this fiscal year, 2013-14, with about $1.45 million, while the ending fund balance in the proposed 2014-15 budget is about $807,000, about 3.8 percent of the General Fund.
That means the district is spending some $600,000 more than it will receive in revenue, Keeney said. He and several others are wary of any ending fund balance below 5 percent of the General Fund.
He said that a budget with a 5-percent ending fund balance is the only one he will support.
“This is the first year we’ve had some money, and (Schrader) proposes a budget where we’re spending more than we’re getting,” Keeney said.
The committee was scheduled to meet on Tuesday. After Budget Committee approval, the budget must be adopted by the School Board before the end of the fiscal year, June 30. Typically, the board would vote on the budget at its next regular meeting, on June 9.