During the Churchill County School District board meeting on April 8th, Superintendent Summer Stephens reported that there still has not been a decision from the state regarding the rest of the school year. “I know the big question people have – is this going to go past April 30th – and we have no idea,” said Stephens. “We have asked for two weeks’ notice from the Department if we are going to reopen and we can only get a commitment of one week’s time.”
During the meeting, Superintendent Summer Stephens recognized several people for their work during the shutdown of the schools, including “teachers who have transformed themselves and are giving it their all to keep educating their students.” She said there is a number of the staff that are still working including food service, transportation, and maintenance personnel. She thanked Oasis Online for their work to keep the district connected and expand the connection to students, as well as the city and county staff who continue to meet daily to coordinate all the COVID related efforts. Additionally, Walmart has made a huge donation of school supplies to students, and CC Communications, Charter, and Verizon have also expanded their services to make sure students are connected with teachers and can continue their education. “I’m grateful to be seeing the very best in people at this time,” said Stephens.
Stephens also reported on the communications she continues to have with the Department of Education, including the continually shifting time frames. Stephens and several staff members were able to have input into a state discussion regarding effective and equitable changes that may need to happen for graduation in terms of things that may need to be waived and things that cannot be waived.
She said there has been a lot of conversation at the state level with the superintendents about the budgeting season for next year. “The Governor is talking about upwards of $2 million,” said Stephens, “across the state in recapturing grant funding from various state agencies and it is difficult for us to know what that means for us right now.”
Phyllys Dowd gave a business services update saying that she and her staff have been working from home. She is continuing to work with the state and financial officers from districts across the state on the new funding model and how to complete the new budgeting template.
Trustee Matt Hyde asked Stephens to speak regarding the new hires as the board addressed the consent agenda. “As you can see we have a number of new hires and on my part I think I failed to have what I would call adequate communication with the board on a number of fronts regarding my understanding of implementing staffing at various levels, so there is a second counselor on the agenda tonight at the middle school.” She said this is part of the extensive conversation around the strategic plan and efforts around social-emotional learning and development.
With over 780 students at the middle school, Stephens said, “we have been woefully understaffed and that is over double of what is the national recommendation.” She said students at this age are extremely needy with so much in their life changing at once. “I proceeded with requesting that we add a second counselor there and if we can get another time when it’s agenized we can talk further about revisiting the roles and responsibilities so that I don’t put anyone in that position again.” The board approved the consent agenda and added a second counselor at the middle school, Armeda Winter who is married to the principal at Churchill County High School, Scott Winter.
Written reports were provided by each principal to the board and those reports were included in the board packet, available online: Board Packet 4-8-2020.
Phyllys Dowd presented information to the board regarding the 2021 Tentative Budget, saying that the Budget Advisory Committee was only able to meet once this year. The budget contains eleven governmental fund types with estimated expenditures of $45,849,700. During a call last week at the DOE, the districts discussed expectations that there would be considerable changes to the budgets due to the uncertainties around COVID-19.
“I have not made any changes to the document yet for the COVID-19 closures,” said Dowd, “obviously there will be repercussions because a majority of our funding comes from hospitality and the gaming industry and that’s what fund education and therefore with all of it being closed it will be a significant hit.” The district’s fiscal officers continue to work with DOE and Dowd hopes to have more information for the board before the May 27th Board meeting. She also hopes to have another Budget Advisory Committee meeting before then as well.
Dowd has worked with Lisa Bliss on enrollment projections and budget for a 1% growth model in students. The district is funded on the weighted column, because special needs students at the pre school are funded at .6 per student. The budget presented has an ending fund balance of 6%, which includes $515,000 in contingency. Also included is an estimated increase in the Distributive School Account and property taxes as calculated by the Education and Taxation departments. The annual step increases with all three associations are included, and several positions were added based on student needs and student count. The budget will be submitted to the department of taxation by April 15th and the public hearing for the final budget will be held on May 27th, and the final budget is due to the state on June 8th.
Several board members questioned the likelihood of a drop in revenues due to the COVID situation and how the district would plan to address that probability. According to Dowd there is a protection built in to the NRS, if the district per pupil were to drop more than 5%, “we keep the same funding as the year before the drop,” she said. “That is a protection we have used several times in the past, the most recent when Oasis Academy expanded we were able to take advantage of that protection and that is in place for next year, after the new funding model is in I don’t know.” The tentative budget was approved unanimously.
Read more from the board meeting on the proposed reorganization of the administration here.
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