Sean C. Morgan
The short-term budget picture for Sweet Home School District looks good, adding about seven full-time employees, 4.75 full-time equivalents of them related to full-day kindergarten.
The long-term outlook is more complicated, according to Supt. Keith Winslow’s budget message.
The School District Budget Committee met Monday evening, May 11, and received a copy of the proposed 2015-16 budget, and Winslow delivered the annual budget message.
In the short term, the state is providing additional funds to implement full-day kindergarten, Winslow said.
The district started providing all-day kindergarten this year on its existing funding levels, which include funding for half-day kindergarten.
“Since we already have the staff in place to support a 3/4-day kindergarten program, we can use some of the additional funds to help with other needs,” Winslow said.
The district will see lower Public Employees Retirement System rates in 2015-16 and 2016-17 due to positive investment returns on the district’s PERS side accounts, created when the district borrowed $17.3 million in the 2002-03 school year, Winslow said. PERS Will draw down the side account balance during the next two years to help cover the district’s PERS expenses.
This temporary savings may be used to address some one-time needs, Winslow said.
Long term, PERS complicates the district’s budget outlook.
The Oregon Supreme Court on April 30 overturned most of the PERS pension system reforms passed by the legislature to help address the system’s unfunded liability.
“The decision came too late to impact pension rates for the upcoming biennium,” Winslow said. “However, the long-term impact is expected to be dire for Oregon’s school districts.”
Additionally, the state is providing the same level of funding both years of the biennium, 2015-16 and 2016-17.
“Typically, the state provides less funding the first year of the biennium and more funding the second year to help cover inflationary costs,” Winslow said. “Because of this change, it is important that we maintain a sufficient carryover balance at the end of the 2015-16 school year to avoid having to make reductions during the 2016-17 school year.
Winslow also is concerned about a state Senate bill during this legislative session that would have ended the Access College Today program. The bill died in committee, but the legislature will likely revisit it in an upcoming session.
Another bill, which is still alive, could reduce district funding by $200,000 per year while increasing funding for charter schools, Winslow said, and yet another bill would increase substitute teacher pay by 12.5 percent in districts with four-day school weeks. That bill passed unanimously in the state House of Representatives and is now awaiting Senate approval.
“Meanwhile, advocates for districts with high percentages of English language learning students continue to be heard while advocates for districts with high percentages of homeless students appear few and far between,” Winslow said. The state plans to allocate about $350 million during the upcoming biennium to districts based on the number of ELL students and nothing based on the number of homeless students.
“This distribution hurts us since we have one of the highest percentages of homeless students in Oregon and one of the lowest percentages of ELL students,” Winslow said.
Overall, the proposed 2015-16 budget is $34.7 million. The general fund is $22 million, up from a budgeted $21.1 million. Other funds include federal programs, food services, long-term maintenance, retirement reserves, debt service and grant programs.
In the budget, the district proposes 2.75 full-time equivalent teachers, 1.75 of them to implement all-day kindergarten and one to help reduce class sizes at Hawthorne Elementary School. The total cost is $192,000.
The budget also includes two new kindergarten assistant positions at a cost of $50,000.
A new full-time counselor will allow Oak Heights and Hawthorne full-time counselors on site. Oak Heights hosts the district’s Opportunity Room, and Hawthorne hosts the PALS special education program. The cost is about $70,000.
A .7 FTE increase in secretarial time will reinstate the curriculum secretary position at a cost of about $30,000.
The budget proposal includes $42,000 to pay half the cost of reinstating the school resource officer position in partnership with the Sweet Home Police Department.
District staff propose setting aside an additional $150,000 to the PERS debt service fund based on the recent Oregon Supreme Court decision.
It also will transfer $350,000 to long-term maintenance, $100,000 to textbooks and technology and $75,000 to the district’s early retirement liability fund.
The budget fractionally increases speech pathologist time to meet student needs, and it reflects the reconfiguration of the high school’s alternative education program, which will offer a more engaging in-house program, Winslow said. “We expect to spend approximately $10,000 for computers and furniture. Ongoing costs will be at or below what we have spent in the past for alternative education options.”
The district expects to start the year with a beginning fund balance of 6 to 7 percent in the General Fund, budgeting $1.45 million, and end the 2015-16 fiscal year on June 30 with at least a 5-percent ending fund balance, budgeting it at $1.125 million.
The Budget Committee is scheduled to meet again on May 18 and then May 20 if necessary to review the budget document. The Budget Committee will then approve a budget for School Board consideration. The School Board is scheduled to decide whether to adopt the Budget Committee’s approved budget at its regular meeting on June 8 following a public hearing.
Budget Committee members include the School Board, Chanz Keeney, Jenny Daniels, Jason Van Eck, Kevin Burger, Leena Ellis, David VanDerlip, Jason Redick, Nick Augsburger and Mike Reynolds, and appointed citizens, Jocelyn Gordon, Kevin Pettner, Celeste Van Cleave, Diane Gerson, Jessica Garrett, Gerritt Schaffer and Miriam Hooley.