WORK SESSION
April 8, 2013 – 7:30 p.m.
Jr./Sr. High School Multi-Purpose Room
DISCUSSION GUIDE
1. Moment of Silence
2. Pledge of Allegiance
3. Presentations
A. Budget
Mr. Carsley informed the Board that they would need to approve the proposed final budget next week. There needs to be at least 30 days between the approval of the proposed final budget and the approval of the final budget. There are not enough days between the May meeting & the June meeting.
The Exceptions were approved by the State, but they will not be using them. The surplus from last year will be used.
Adjustments:
Decreased amount for substitutes.
Decreased charter school expense
Decreased unemployment
Increased prescription drugs - claims expected to increase.
Current Budget: Chester County Mills 36.80 an increase of .38%
Lancaster County Mills 27.79 an increase of 1.1%
The index is 2.1% and both counties are under the index.
To get Chester County to a 0% change, the budget would have to use $115,000 of fund balance, additional reductions or a combination of both.
If Chester County were at 0%, then Lancaster County would increase 20 basis points (0.20%)
Ms. Johnson reminded the Board that a couple of years ago when Lancaster County was facing a significant increase due to rebalancing, the Board used fund balance to mitigate the impact. She wondered if it was time to help Chester County.
Dr. Newcome distributed a budget reduction list (appears below). The numbers are very rough and he did not take the time to get firm numbers. He will do so if the Board asks specifically about any items.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/134940476/BudgetReductions2-040813
They have already reduced the hours for instructional assistants, rather than eliminating positions. Approximately $58,000 is used from the General Fund in addition to Title I funds.
A reminder that Kindergarten is not mandated.
The building budgets have already been reduced 10% ($ 60,000) from the preliminary budget. Could possibly reduce up to 20% ($120,000).
Non-athletic supplemental contracts would include things like Marching Band and National Honor Society. Department Chairs were eliminated a few years ago. We are at the point where the elimination of these contracts could impact student learning.
The athletic fund is at $230,000 - down from over $400,000 a few years ago.
Summer literacy camp - could save about $35,000 if it wasn't held here for all students. We would still need to send students who require an extended school year to some sort of program.
Kindergarten Outreach is community based.
The ideas are from many sources. Many were on the list from prior years. Dr. Newcome needs direction from the Board.
Mr. Norris asked the building principals how a decrease in the building budget would impact students.
Dr. Rohrer said that they have already reduced costs through technology. They have to make sure that teachers still have the supplies they need to deliver instruction. For example, he has to make sure that physics has everything they need to conduct experiments.
Dr. Newcome was looking for a comparison of this year's supply budget to next year's. Mr. Carsley said that the preliminary budget was higher, but is now comparable to this year and other districts'.
Mr. Norris asked if it was safe to say that the principals might not know everything the teachers might request during the year. Dr. Rohrer said that is true.
Mr. Haller said that there are some expenses they can't cut such as the copier and nursing supplies.
Ms. Wilson said it could impact some plans. The reading program is going to focus on more non-fiction reading. They were planning on getting subscriptions to a non-fiction magazine such as Time For Kids. They may have to share between classes which is not ideal.
A lot of reading resources used to be under building budgets, but some have moved to the curriculum line.
Dr. Melton asked if the 2 summer programs were mandated. The Kindergarten Outreach is not mandated. About $35,000 of the Summer Literacy program is not required. The rest would be spent either at Octorara or another summer program. Students with IEPs that indicate an extended school year have to be given a summer program. We impact a lot more students by spending the extra $35,000. The Summer Literacy program is a 5 week program for 4 days per week.
Dr Melton asked if we received federal funds for it. Dr. Newcome will check, but he doesn't believe so.
Ms. Johnson asked if could potentially cost more by sending students to another program because of bussing. Dr. Newcome felt the transportation would be covered.
Dr. Melton asked how many teachers are involved. Dr. Newcome said there are 20-25 full-time equivalents.
Mr. Norris asked if Kindergarten Outreach is still necessary with full-day Kindergarten.
Dr. Newcome said it is still helpful. It covers about 45 students per year. Dr. Melton wanted to know if there was an outcome report. Ms. McNamara has produced one in the past. Dr. Newcome will pull it out.
Mr. Hume asked about the double bus run. Dr. Newcome said it will only work in Parkesburg. A bus will go to one section of Parkesburg about 20 minutes earlier than normal and pick up students. After dropping the students at school, it will return to Parkesburg to pick up more students and take them to school. Instead of 2 busses at one time, one bus will go twice. There will still be mileage costs and staff to watch students who are at school early & late. It will impact all ages.
Mr. Carsley has been working with Althouse Transportation to maximize the bus routes.
Mr. Ganow would like Dr. Newcome to prioritize the list.
Ms. Bowman asked if the building budgets could be cut 15% instead of 10% or 20%.
Mr. Norris would also like them to look at taking an additional $100,000 out of the fund balance.
Mr. Stoltzfus asked if the district could charge for bussing. The answer was "no". Ms. Bowman wanted confirmation that they had to have one seat for each student. Mr. Carsley said they do unless a parent would sign off. In districts where that occurs, there is usually some financial incentive provided. Dr. Newcome said that he has heard from a lot of parents of students who drive that they are glad during bad weather that the seat is available on the bus.
4. Visitors’ Comments - Agenda Items Only
None.
5. Information Items
None
6. Presentation of Agenda Items for the April 15, 2013 Regular Monthly Public Meeting:
A. That the Octorara Board of School Directors approve the 2013-2014 Chester County Intermediate Unit Core Services Budget in the amount of $17,218,960.
Mr. Ganow wanted to know if there was going to be a presentation. Dr. Newcome said that someone from the IU would come out if they wanted.
B. That the Octorara Board of School Directors approve the 2013-2014 Chester County Intermediate Unit Occupational Education Budget in the amount of $24,139,148.
State laws says that the two budgets must be separate.
C. That the Octorara Board of School Directors approve the resolution for the Proposed Final General Fund Budget for the 2013-2014 school year.
D. That the Octorara Board of School Directors approve Ms. Suzanne Schurr’s request for sabbatical leave for the purpose of study for the 2013-2014 school year. Ms. Schurr is a third grade teacher at the Octorara Elementary School.
Resignation Approvals:
E. That the Octorara Board of School Directors accept, with regret, Ms. Lois Hopkins’ resignation for the purpose of retirement effective June 7, 2013. Ms. Hopkins is a Spanish and French teacher at the Octorara Area Jr. High School. (Hired August 29, 1996)
F. That the Octorara Board of School Directors accept, with regret, Ms. Alberta Gehron’s resignation effective March 22, 2013. Ms. Gehron is a cook at the Octorara Jr. High School cafeteria. (Hired August 27, 2007)
Hiring Approvals:
G. That the Octorara Board of School Directors approve Ms. Charlotte Bridges as a long term substitute ESL teacher at the Octorara Primary Learning Center and Elementary Schools effective April 15, 2013 through June 7, 2013. Ms. Bridges’ rate will be $140 per day. (Replacing a medical leave.)
H. That the Octorara Board of School Directors approve Ms. Susanna Esh as a cook/manager/cashier at the Octorara Intermediate School effective February 13,2013. Ms. Esh’s rate will be $12.00 per hour for 6.25 hours per day. (Replacing Emily Harper who transferred.)
Dr. Newcome noted that Ms. Neff has been reorganizing food services to make it more efficient. She will be at the next facilities meeting to discuss food costs and meal rates.
I. That the Octorara Board of School Directors approve Ms. Jennifer Zimath as a cashier at the Octorara Area Sr. High School cafeteria effective March 1, 2013. Ms. Zimath’s rate will be $8.75 per hour. (Replacing Susanna Esh who transferred.)
J. That the Octorara Board of School Directors approve the following substitute support personnel for the 2012-2013 school year:
Nancy Culp (Instructional Assistant K-5)
Nicholas Prange (Cafeteria)
K. That the Octorara Board of School Directors approve the following supplemental contracts for the 2012-2013 school year:
Kevin Noon Mentor Trent Zook $200
Jo Ann Marinacci Mentor Johanna Lasak $200
7. Facilities Committee Report
Mr. Nelson gave the report.
- PTO playground equipment will be installed soon as the weather has improved.
- HS renovation - As of 4/1, a lot of the punch list items have been completed. The list is getting shorter. Some test can only be done when the students are not in school.
- HS Roof - Part 1 minimum bid $ 61,050; Part 2 minimum bid $6,989
- Building security - gates ordered & installed between HS & Jr. High; gates ordered for OES.
- Faculty lounge repaired
- CO monitors - $ 2,700 - $ 3,500 to be done properly. Still researching if they are necessary.
- Legs for scissors lift - $4,600 - the cost of 6 or 7 rentals.
- List of summer projects - little things
- Energy savings - replace 21 parking lights; 400 watt LED -save 35,000 kw per year. 4 year payback
- Bleacher removal - will begin. Sell for scrap.
4/20/2013 - Chester County Waste Authority - recycling of electronic equipment - strictly for Octorara residents. There is some question as to whether Lancaster County residents can particpate. Waiting for answer.
There was a presentation by a couple who are residents about campus resource officers (safety). We will have more information at a later date.
Field Development - the task force has all but about $20,000.
Ms. Bowman asked if there is a list on the website of what items will be accepted on the 20th. There is.
8. Education Committee Report
Meeting postponed for weather.
9. Other Items/Concerns
None
10. Visitors’ Comments – General
None
11. Administrator Comments/Announcements
Dr. Newcome distributed handouts concerning questions from last month.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/135485723/follow-up2-040813
1. The cost of the most expensive special education services.
Top 3: $ 103,563
$ 101,884
$ 98,414
2. Charter schools and AYP.
When the State calculated AYP based on charter schools being a district, it improved their numbers. The U.S. Dept. of Ed. said they have to be reported as schools ( and the state could report the numbers both ways).
When looking at charter schools as schools, NONE of the charter school with Octorara students made AYP.
Article that explains what happened:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/135485728/Follow-up-Charter-School-Article
Dr. Melton asked if charter schools have to take special ed students. Dr. Newcome said that they do.
Mr. Hume wanted to remind everyone of the Ag Fair this Saturday. See the district website for details: http://octorara.k12.pa.us/education/district/district.php?sectionid=1
We received donations from Citadel, Herrs Foods, Chester County 2020 and Home Depot. Octorara has the only Ag program in the county.
Dr. Melton wanted to know if a survey had ever been done as to why parents choose a charter school over Octorara.
Ms. Bowman said one was done specifically for Kindergarten.
12. Board Comments
13. Adjournment
Facility Committee Meeting – Monday, April 8, 2013 – 6:00 p.m. in the District Office Conference Room
Executive Session for personnel – Monday, April 8, 2013 – Following the Work Session in the District Office Conference Room
Policy Committee Meeting – Monday, April 15, 2013 – 6:00 p.m. in the District Office Conference Room
Finance Committee Meeting – Monday, April 15, 2013 – 6:30 p.m. in the District Office Conference Room
Next regularly scheduled Board Meeting – Monday, April 15, 2013 – 7:30 p.m. in the Jr. High School Multi-Purpose Room
Education Committee Meeting – Monday, April 22, 2013 – 6:00 p.m. in the District Office Conference Room
Posts
I apologize for the attachments only being linked. The code to embed them was not working properly from scribd.
ReplyDeleteI have some random comments related to the meeting.
I just want to remind people what I said back in January. The budget is a process. There is no reason to get up in arms with the preliminary budget passage in January. Everyone knows that isn’t going to be the final budget. It is the starting point that state law says must happen.
For Chester County, the mills in January were at 37.85; in April they are at 36.80.
For Lancaster County, the mills in January were at 28.60; in April they are at 27.79.
And they are NOT finished yet. Based on the experience of seeing this play out over many budget seasons, I would say that the final numbers will come in a little lower.
While not replacing teachers who retire or resign seems easy, it depends on which teachers retire. There is one known retiree for this year – a Spanish and French teacher in the Jr. High. If she isn’t replaced, what happens to language instruction in the Jr. High? Will only certain students get to have a language? Will French be eliminated, with only Spanish being taught? There will be some sort of trade-off which WILL impact student learning.
Going back to a half-day of Kindergarten is unacceptable. It seems the people who are screaming about test scores are the first to want to go back to half-day Kindergarten. Full-day Kindergarten was a battle fought for over 15 years. To only have it for one year would be wrong.
Why do the building budgets have to be reduced in 5% increments, if they need to be reduced at all? Why not 12%? Or 16%? Or 9%?
I know the District has been working toward athletics being entirely self-funded. It’s been coming for a long time and has happened more slowly than I anticipated. However, given that several of the athletic clubs/boosters are funding the renovations of the Gene Davis Field, can we really expect them to come up with the additional funds for the operating expenses of athletics right now? How much are they expected to raise?
I’m a little confused about the subscriptions for Time For Kids. When I was in the Elementary PTO, we paid for the Weekly Readers or Time for Kids depending on what the teachers wanted. I guess that must have stopped after my kids were out of Elementary school.
This is something I’ll have to ask the District – but….. for those high cost special education students…. Do those costs get included in the totals used to calculate average cost per student for charter school payments or do those outliers get excluded? They could certainly skew the result.
I seem to remember from a couple of years ago, there being a discussion about doing a survey of charter school parents. If I remember correctly from the discussion, there was concern that they wouldn’t get enough parents to respond to get a good sample. That’s when they turned their focus to Kindergarten.
Why couldn't a technology class maintain the school website as well as the phone call system? I think some of our best resources are our own students.
ReplyDeleteAnd as for the kdg out reach program....I had one child particpate due to her shyness...It didn't help her, it was held in an unfamiliar church, the teacher she had was not who she saw the 1st day of school--she still had to have an aide get her on and off the bus up until Thanksgiving anyway. I thought it was a waste from the beginning however was afraid not to try it. I feel the same about all day kdg..that same shy little girl was directed into the all day program, again I allowed it, afraid not to. I have always regretted it....Let kids be kids when they are supposed to and I think we will all be suprised in the long run!! Carole Lowry