School Board Meeting 10/30/14

Notes from the October 30, 2014 School Board Meeting

Financial Fiscal Year-end Update (June 2014)

·        General Fiscal Info

o   $3.8 million surplus

§  $0.929 million to Minor Capital=$1.882 million
§  $2.347 to Major Capital=$4.252 million
§  Considering the size of the total budget, this is not huge considering that $2.0 million of this is in an “Emergency Fund”.

o   Recent Year-end surpluses (% of total budget)

§  2009- 3.5%
§  2010-5.0%
§  2011-7.7%
§  2012-2.5%
§  2013-1.2%
§  2014-2.1%

o   Budgeted for 13,801 students at $3,500 per student from state

·        Money Pots (Places holding cash surpluses)

o   Nutrition:  ($92,059)
o   Instructional resources (Texts plus): $42,000
o   Transportation (bus):$1,394,821
o   Grants: $75,000
o   Laptops:

§  $1,099,085 (unreserved)
§  $204,750 (reserved)

o   Health:

§  $3,565,069 (unreserved)
§  $4,258,746 (reserved)

§  Last year was a good claims year.
§  We are self-insured…meaning we pay all of our own claims from our premium pool. Anthem just administers the program.
§  Our Health insurance carrier contract will be out for bid this year (every five years)

Cell Towers on School/County Property

·        About to send out RFP’s for a group to manage cell tower leases·        Schools would lease desirable school property to a group that would, in turn; build, maintain, and sell space to companies needing cell infrastructure. ·        This could become a steady, reliable source of new revenue for the school system.

Notable Board Member Reports

o   Mr. Minnix:

§  “I look forward (Kinda) to the budget process.”

o   Mr. Canada:

§  Concerned about pay equity for bus drivers.  Apparently some who drive more than four hours receive less money per hour for driving more than that.

·        Hours 1-4@$16 an hour
·        Additional hours @$10 an hour

o   Mr. Barrineau:

§  Pointed out that WalMart is reducing/eliminating insurance benefits for its part-time workers as are many other major corporations.  So we aren’t the only ones dealing with this.

Superintendent Search

o   The process begins November 4 in earnest
o   There are 19 applicants.

RCEA speaks before the School Board

RCEA President, Tim Summers, spoke before the  Roanoke  County School Board tonight.  He came out strongly against outsourcing and in favor of more than just a half a cost of living adjustment for school board employees.

Stay tuned.

Tim did a great job. He was forceful and forthright.  The board had no comment.

RCEA Lobby Day 2014

RCEA Lobby Day Report

The RCEA took five members to Richmond on Monday January 27 to visit with local legislators and to commune with hundreds of our education friends from all across the Commonwealth.  Everywhere you turned in the General Assembly building today, you found teachers.  In addition, our friends from the PTA, School Boards Association (VSBA), and the Superintendent’s Association (VASS) were in the house. 

 

We had the opportunity to sit in the House Education Committee meeting and listened to several bills being discussed.  One bill is this year’s version of what’s known as “The Tebow Bill”.  If passed,  this bill would effectively force VHSL to change their policy regarding allowing home-schooled children to participate in local high school sports OR would force high schools to disassociate from VHSL.  The bill definitely has legs in the House committee, and proponents spoke to it forcefully.  VEA’s position along with PTA, VSBA and VASS is that the current VHSL regulations have stipulations with which public school students would have to adhere -like attending school on the day of a game, maintaining a certain grade point average, and taking the required number of classes.  A home-schooled student would be under no such stipulations.  Furthermore, a home-schooled student, if allowed on a team, would effectively be taking the place of a student who actually attends the school.  Lastly, the relaxation of the rules would open high school sports to being ‘gamed’ by faux students.  Ultimately,  the parents of home-schooled children executed a choice when they withdrew from public schooling. That choice has consequences.

Today, we met with Delegate Rasoul (Roanoke City), Delegate Habeeb, Senator Smith, and Senator Edwards’ legislative assistant-Alison Baird.  Unfortunately, Delegate Head did not respond to our requests for a meeting.

While he doesn’t represent our immediate area, Senator Rasoul (Democrat) is a strong supporter of public school education and is well-versed in every issue we broached.  In fact, he commands the issues and can articulate his positions.  Rasoul pointedly said that he is serving to help the entire Roanoke Valley and will work with local legislators for us.

Senator Smith (Republican) spent a cordial time with our representatives.  While we tend to disagree with him on many policies relating to education, he is always willing to meet with us and listen respectfully.  Senator Smith is working hard to give school divisions more control over their calendar.  

Our meeting with Delegate Habeeb (Republican) was relaxed.  We probed him on his thoughts about Medicaid expansion.  He never said he would support it, but proceeded to share a rather confusing tutorial focused on unspecified system inefficiencies that need to be addressed and the fact that it isn’t “Free Money.”  The fact is that Medicaid expansion is FREE money.  It’s money that the Federal government has earmarked for our state.  The Federal government will pay 100% of the cost of expansion for two years then 90% thereafter…forever.  Of course, nothing in government is ever guaranteed forever…NOTHING.  So to argue against this expansion by saying that maybe one day it might stop is illogical.  The fact is that Medicaid expansion will save Virginia an estimated $1.3 billion in real dollars over 7 years.  It will also alleviate the “secret tax” on our insurance premiums (est. 10% annually) because the uninsured will no longer invade our emergency rooms without the ability to pay.  Furthermore, it will create an estimated 33,000 jobs in Virginia and create insurance coverage for almost 200,000 Virginians who have no insurance…many of them children. There is no logical reason to stand against Medicaid expansion, unless you like our current system for serving the uninsured.

Our neighboring legislator, Delegate Yost, is sponsoring a bill that would allow localities the option of joining a state health insurance pool for public school employees.  Such a pool would allow all participating divisions to tap the economy of scale to help stabilize their health insurance premiums.  Roanoke County is currently self-insured (we have our own pool) and we most likely would not participate in the state pool. However, for small divisions, such a pool could be a godsend in controlling rampant fluctuations in health care premiums.  Delegate Rasoul supports this concept and Delegate Habeeb will study it. 

One item that we discussed is a pending budget amendment to provide the state share of a 6% salary supplement for instructional and support positions (Delegate Chafin/Senator Puckett).  Without a doubt, this amendment would have a tough road in the House,  but the Senate should support as will the Governor.   Delegate Rasoul and Senator Edwards are on board, but we don’t know how Delegates Habeeb and Head, as well as Senator Smith will stand if called to vote on the matter.

We also spent time talking about two administrative tweaks. One will tighten the CPS investigative period to make the 45 day reporting deadline mandatory. The other increases a teacher’s deadline for requesting a hearing after receiving a notice of dismissal from 5 to 10 days.  Previously, before last year’s “reform,” teachers were allowed 15 days to decide on a hearing.

Other issues we discussed were HB 720 which would mandate school divisions to give education employees lactation support or more plainly, a safe, private place to pump breast-milk during working hours.  Some schools currently offer teachers closets that store caustic cleaning chemicals as pump rooms. In another unrelated issue, VRS was “reformed” last year.  One reformation component was a mandate for the state to fully meet its actuarial obligation for supporting the fund. We encouraged legislators to keep to the plan and step up to fully fund VRS by July 2018 as agreed upon.

VEA’s annual Lobby day isn’t the end; rather, it is just the continuation of a year-long process to protect and strengthen public schools in Virginia.  Our state has one of the best public school education systems in the country and world; yet, there are forces that either knowingly or unknowingly, are trying to tear it all down.  We must be present.

You can learn more about by reading VEA’s Daily General Assembly Report.