Roanoke County School Budget Work Session LIVE

The Roanoke County School Board met with school administrative staff at the Roanoke County Schools office building on Wednesday night March 11 from 7pm to about 9:00. During that meeting, information was shared and direction was given on several points:

Executive Summary

· Discussed state and local revenue projections

· Highlighted the differences between the House of Delegates and the State Senate budget proposals and how they might impact our school division.

· Set up an Average Daily Membership (ADM) base for building the budget. The state pays based on the number of student days spent in the system.

· Discussed insurance premiums. Dental is up $300,000, Health insurance is up 4.1%; however it will be absorbed by the overfunded catastrophic insurance account (the same one from which our bonus came).

· Lengthy discussion on Governor’s School. Suggested that we will stay in the program next year assuming projected funds come through.

· Decided to maintain current laptops and extend their warranty. However, no new laptops will be purchased this year.

· If textbook money ($1.1 million) comes through from the state, the schools will focus on K-4 and 6-9 SS texts/materials.

· Encore Elementary Resource Scheduling Program was introduced. 8/12 day schedule was illustrated. Potential elimination of 2-3 PE teaching positions

· Secondary Scheduling was discussed. Through efficient scheduling, 22-23 teaching positions will be eliminated.

Several things were not discussed

· School Closings

· Elementary staff reductions

· VRS employee payments

· Salary

The school board will meet jointly with the county board of supervisors Thursday March 12 at 5pm and then have its regular meeting at 7pm. Additionally, the school board will hold another budget work session on Tuesday March 16 from 2-7pm It is anticipated that the school board will prioritize specific cuts at that Tuesday meeting. All meetings will be held at the county office building.

Agenda (With links to the County’s BoardDocs)

Note: We were not given access to official budget number documents that were discussed at this meeting. Hence, notes from the meeting were taken from comments made by the actual people speaking. Taking notes on the fly is a dangerous and delicate process. We wish we had a hard copy of the actual information, but we have been assured that the detailed budget lines will be available on the Board Document links embedded in this document as early as Thursday March 11. What follows is a collection of notes taken as the meeting progressed. Please excuse any typos and shorthand dictation. Every effort was made to be accurate.

2.01 Enrollment Projections - Mr. Allen Journell

ADM (Average Daily Membership) Projecting 14,200 in ADM…could be a low guess. Mr. Minnix, especially, was pushing for using the lowest estimate as a worst case scenario.

2.02 Sales Tax Projections - Mrs. Penny Hodge

Significant portion of budget. February collections of sales tax were better and in positive territory. However, that increase pales in comparison to what is potentially being cut by the state. Due to the state using a different methods of identifying the number of students in the district, we could lose $450,000. (We used to use the triennial census.*** We will now use Weldon/Cooper numbers). Next year we are looking at $13.8 million as opposed to $14.2 million.

*** Does that mean that I will no longer have to send out those school census forms and then spend the next three weeks asking for students to return them?

2.03 State Revenue Projections - Mrs. Penny Hodge

In House and State we are slated to lose about $10 million. Penny Hodge outlined the $2.5 million shell game. In the House of Delegates budget that is being considered, we would be expected to get then return 2.5 million back to the state.

· House of Delegates Budget Gap: $9.2 Million

· Senate of Virginia Budget Gap: $7.2 million

Fuzzy Minnix opined that the final budget version will most likely be more like the House version than the Senate version.

Pending decisions are based on our final enrollment figures.

In addition, we will lose the $830,000 from the technology grant with House plan, but will keep the grant with the Senate plan

Early intervention, At-risk initiative, VA Preschool are all lumped into the Lottery block grant money in the House version. This is dangerous because if lottery money is doled out only based on what money is available as opposed to what may be needed. It makes funding these programs riskier.

2.04 Federal and Other Revenue Projections - Mrs. Penny Hodge

Net increase of $27,000

2.05 County Transfer - Mrs. Diane Hyatt and Mrs. Penny Hodge

Diane Hyatt: Comments on the county side. County views that Roanoke County will have $238 thousand new monies based on Kaine’s initial budget. They don’t have interpreted numbers for the amended budgets yet. The county (other than schools) is looking at -$200,000-300,000 from the state.

It’s hard to comment further since the county doesn’t really have as solid information as the schools.

Schools have a positive $300,000+ and balanced against a negative $9.7 million.

Using the House numbers, after running numbers through the formula, the county would pass back about 4 million. If the Senate budget prevails, about 3.4 million comes back.

2.06 Standards of Quality and Scheduling Models - Dr. Carol Whitaker, Dr. Cecil Snead and Mrs. Rebecca Eastwood

Staff was encouraged to be creative with scheduling.

Personnel knows where the schools are in relation to SOQ staffing minimums. Specific staffing cuts were not discussed at this meeting.

ENCORE: Scheduling of resource teachers (Art, Music, PE, Library, Guidance???).

· 8 day schedule

· Music and PE twice per 8 days (45 min)

· Art 2 X per 12 days K-5 (45 min)

· Library 3x per 12 days (45 min)

· Benefits: No school day travel. Common planning. Works well w/ parallel block scheduling…other benefits weren’t viewable from the slide projected on the wall at the other end of the room.

· Bottom Line: This program will result in two to three fewer PE teachers.

· Student centered. Efficient way of scheduling

Jerry Canada: How many fewer positions will it require? Rebecca Eastwood did not answer that question due to the potential for retirees to enter into the formula.

Dr. Cecil Snead addressed Middle and Secondary staffing: Keep the 150/25per student max levels. With new staffing guidelines, everything is better and maintains 25/1 staffing levels and allows for remediation possibilities. He suggested that fewer teachers would be required, but…couldn’t really say how many…save perhaps 22-23 positions across the board? He seemed to suggest that by more efficiently scheduling, the position savings could be maximized.**

Jerry Canada said that we are moving away from a parallel block scheduling. William Byrd High was the high school experimenting with the system.

Fuzzy Minnix thanked the staff and teachers for making secondary education so strong.

Penny Hodge: House version nixes planning period funding for secondary teachers.

**Honestly, your note taker is simply an observer with no hard-copy information in hand. I can say that I am not clear about how secondary scheduling will work next year and how they realize the savings of 22-23 positions across the board.

2.07 Health and Dental Insurance - Mrs. Penny Hodge

Due to negotiation and how the county allocates the reserve, premium increases are slated to be 4.1% with the increase completely covered by the health insurance reserve. (3 yr contract variable based on claims). There will be no changes in the insurance program. The county side is investigating a wellness program… with the schools coming on board in future years.

Premium increase of $300,000 in Dental.

2.08 VRS and Life Insurance - Mrs. Penny Hodge

Big difference between the House and Senate versions.

Current rate paid is 13.1 %

House version has us saving 2.4 million but giving 1.7 back to the state.

Senate version has us keeping more of the savings.

Very confusing issue.

2.09 Laptop Program - Mrs. Penny Hodge and Dr. Cecil Snead

What to do about laptops?

Options:

1. Grades 10-12 take them home $126,000 ( extend warranty)

2. Grades 11-12 take them home $210,000 (warranty and carts for grade 10)

3. Grades 10-12 Take home w/ new computer 126,000 + 900-1300 per new laptop

4. Phase out (No cost)

Online testing is a concern. Looking at a Dell E5400 computer. This model is slightly cheaper than the E6400 ($950 per).

The board will pursue option #1. This will keep the laptop program on life-support with no giant reinvestment of funds. The $126,00 will cover adding another year of warranty to existing computers.

2.10 Requests for New Funds - Dr. Marty Misicko

Marty Misicko suggests a 9% increase in building costs (electricity, etc)

Penny Hodge noted that property insurance increase due to catastrophe claim (Fort Lewis)

Governor’s School fees drop $54,000 ($270,000 to $220,000) Keeping our current slots thanks to negotiations with the City of Roanoke. Jerry Canada states that we will fully find Gov school next year if money comes in as projected right now…The following year’s budget is another story regarding this program. The board discussed this at some length.

2.11 General Fund Budget Recap - Mrs. Penny Hodge

Shortfall of $9.3 in House or $7.2 in Senate.

School Board will have to get together and decide how to react to whatever is approved.

Meeting on Tuesday will be planning to deal with whatever budget gap…prioritize cuts.

Direction given on laptops and the lower enrollment number (14,200).

2.12 Other Fund Budgets - Mrs. Penny Hodge

Ancillary Funds:

1. School Nutrition: Food buying cooperative with regional systems cuts food costs by 2-3%. Outstanding people work there. Increase budget projection is about $90,000 next year.

2. Pepsi: Sales decreased

3. Land Purchase: None

4. Bus: No new buses this year

5. Text books: $1.1 million for next year available from state and other sources. House funding and match in place. Senate no funding in place. If funding comes: focus will be on K-4, 6-9 SS

6. Laptop Fees: and insurance reimbursement might be enough to cover the increase of $126,000 in laptops category.

7. Grants: $266,000 loss of grant money for next year.

8. Debt Fund: Increase of $2.6 million to pay debt load on the four elementary construction projects

Joint meeting with Supervisors Thursday (tomorrow) Next work session next Tuesday.

General Discussion At the End of the Meeting:

Jerry Canada asked Mrs. Hyatt, County Finance Director: Is there any scenario where the county won’t be able to meet its obligations in the county/schools revenue sharing agreement?

Hyatt: County feels like they can deal with the Senate budget, but if it goes beyond that (House) the county would have a problem meeting the agreement.

Canada: Does the county anticipate layoffs or salary reductions at the county?

Hyatt: No. Nor are they considering service cuts.

Mike Stovall: Thanked the budget team. Talked about transparency and how important that is. “We’re going to get through this.”

Jerry Canada: Asked Mrs. Hodge about Mrs. Hyatt’s comments about the county not being able to cover the House budget…

Penny Hodge suggested and agreed that the House version might cost schools about a million more than projected if the county can’t meet its obligation.