The Churchill County School District Board of Trustees met last week in a regular meeting where they dealt with several housekeeping matters as well as approved the Fiscal Year 2022-23 Final Budget.
As they do on a monthly basis, principals provided written reports which are available on the district website. The Board also asked Middle School principal, Amy Word and High School principal Tim Spencer about numbers for summer school. According to Word there are 74 students signed up for summer school and 12 for the skills boot camp. Spencer said there have been 114 applications submitted for summer school and staff is actively trying to attract 225 students.
E.C. Best principal Keith Boone answered questions about his students and school-wide goal to bring 58.8 percent of the second grade who were falling below the 40th percentile in reading to 29.4 percent. In math the goal for second grade was to reduce from 55.7 percent to 27.85 percent of students scoring below the 40th percentile. Boone discussed that his staff was able to make a 21 percent reduction in the number of students falling below the 40th percentile in reading, and a 19 percent reduction in the number of students falling below the 40th percentile in math.
A renewal of the Nevada Public Agency Insurance Pool was approved with a 3.6 percent increase for a total premium of $529,717.
Board members approved a renewal of the Food Service contract agreement with Chartwells for the next five years in the amount of $1,427,564 for the first year of the contract, with annual renewal rates to be approved each year. There were two vendors who attended a walk-through with staff on March 17, but Chartwells was the only proposal submitted. There are no funds budgeted this year because the past two years the district has received a waiver for full reimbursement through the Department of Agriculture. Currently Chartwells is hiring for a new director, “with a really good salary,” according to Superintendent Summer Stephens.
A proposal for renewal of the insurance services for CIGNA (medical), VSP (vision), and Kansas City Life (dental and life) for the next fiscal year was approved with a 11.7 percent increase, down from an original increase of 14 percent. The district has a 110 percent loss ratio. With the 11.7 percent increase, the deductible raises to $4,000 from $3,000 along with several other increases in prescriptions, out of pocket, etc.
Additionally, the Board approved renewing the contract with Oasis Online to continue providing technology support for the district with an increase of 8.5 percent matching the CPI increase over the past year, “to match the growing cost of living,” according to a memo from Dan Slentz who has provided technology service to the district for the past 20 years.
The Board approve the Capital Improvement Project Five Year Plan with a $5,697,325 Projected Available Resources from a $3 million opening fund balance, and revenue from various sources projected at $2.8 million.
After much discussion regarding the recent community survey and the issue of lack of state funding, the Board approved a $31,063,233 budget that would leave an ending fund balance of $1,255,088, a decrease from 11.80 percent to 4.01 percent.
According to Stephens, priorities from the community were in line with the way the board sets their budget. Priorities for the American Rescue Plan Act ESSER funding was identified to be addressing learning loss and achievement gap concerns, supporting reading and math interventions, providing social and emotional/mental health services, and supporting Career and Technical Education.
Overwhelmingly, top priorities for the general fund budget revolved around staff and paying teachers and staff in order to retain and encourage them.
The per pupil amount from the state was increased by $104 this year, from $8,093 to $8,197.
Trustee Buckmaster said he felt the survey was clear, “The top comments were about teacher compensation. Each vendor that came here tonight just got a raise; it is a disservice to our teachers if we don’t give them a raise. The cost of living is up, gas costs more, nothing is going down.”
Trustee Whitaker pointed out that 85-90 percent of the budget is wages and benefits. “Only 13 percent goes to everything else,” she said. “Funding from the state is the problem, we don’t have control over the amount of money we get, if you don’t want to be at the bottom of the states you need to be talking to your legislators.” She said she hears that the board is spending money frivolously, but the district is short staffed and short funded. “We do not have adequate funding, but we don’t want to use that as an excuse to not do our best. Everyone is trying to do the best they can at every level.”
Trustee Matt Hyde said in the eight years he’s been on the board, he hasn’t approved one budget he has liked. “We don’t have the luxury of approving a budget we love, we get what we get.” He questioned why there isn’t a built in COLA when the funding comes from the state. “There isn’t a person up here who doesn’t want to pay our people more,” he said, “to get up here and get beat up, I challenge anyone to get up here and do a better job.”
Trustee Carmen Schank asked about the last time teachers received a raise, discussing a 1.5 percent raise in 2019-20, and then asked Comptroller Kristi Fielding to explain the increase in insurance and in PERS. “It was like a raise at a certain percentage, I do want the public to understand,” she said.
Fielding said the 11.7 percent insurance raise equates to more than a step, “just in the increase in the premium alone is around $1,500.” Additionally, every year the staff receives steps and ranges and haven’t been without movement. “Just the benefit in insurance alone is huge, we pay all the insurance cost for each employee, we just haven’t had a COLA increase,” said Fielding. “The benefits factor in as a non-cash raise.”
Additionally, she said that employees were given a retention stipend last year in addition to their step raises of $1,000 to $3,500. That stipend does not however, have an effect on raising PERS contributions.
Sign up to receive updates and the Friday File email notices.
Support local, independent news – subscribe to The Fallon Post, your non-profit (501c3) online news source for all things Fallon.
The Fallon Post – 2040 Reno Hwy, #385, Fallon, Nevada 89406
Comment
Comments