By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Assembly gave assurance to the School Board Thursday night that the city will fund the school budget to the maximum allowed by law, with additional funds for “non-instructional” items.
The Assembly voted 6-0 at the special meeting to provide $7,986,868 for instructional purposes; $150,000 for school building maintenance; $60,000 for utilities for the performing arts center; and $122,000 for Blatchley pool operations.
The motion also stated that if the federal Secure Rural Schools program is reauthorized, the city will dedicate the funds to public education for up to $500,000, for a total local contribution of $8,818,868.
Most of the figures were in a proposed motion in the Assembly’s informational packet, based on earlier Assembly conversations.
After hearing about budget challenges the school district is facing, the Assembly added $122,000 in help for Blatchley swimming pool expenses and increased the amount of Secure Rural Schools funds that will go to the school district to help with activities travel.
The total local support for schools approved in the unanimous vote was $8,818,868, up from $8,364,150 last year.
The vote was unanimous for both the amendment to increase funding and the final motion. Assembly members said they could see the benefit of both pool and activities funding.
“It’s difficult to look at some of these numbers,” Kevin Mosher said. “But we’re making a choice, trying to decide whether we want to invest more in our youth in our community. And I think we should. With the pandemic it took a lot out of people – young, old, everyone. We’ve been forced to be disconnected ... I think a lot of things have fallen to the wayside. It’s been extremely difficult for children, mentally, psychologically. We need to raise the bar a little, if we can. We need to try to fund the schools as much as we can.”
Before casting her vote in favor, Rebecca Himschoot commented that the pool and activities “are the things that most support those with the least.”
“If we want a healthy community, we need to offer things for people to do and we need to support them to do that,” she said. “If we have to make harder decisions later, I’m prepared to make hard decisions ... this doesn’t feel like a hard decision to me.”
A few Assembly members hesitated before voting yes, noting other uses of the SRS funds and other needs in the city, including roads.
“We just gave the schools more money than they asked for,” commented Assembly member Kevin Knox today.
School officials led off the discussion by presenting their draft budget, showing a $2 million shortfall for 2022-23. Declining enrollment over time, potential health insurance increases, and the state’s failure to raise the base student allocation were cited as reasons for a higher local contribution request.
Other uncertainties included “salaries and benefits” due to ongoing bargaining with teachers and support staff unions.
The school district is projecting enrollment at 1,124 down from the 1,231 this year. School District Superintendent Frank Hauser said enrollment is down 113 since fiscal year 2019.
During the same time, costs per pupil increased, from $17,569 per student in FY19 to $19,900, and state funding has not kept pace, he said.
The $10,997,124 in state funding will provide over half of the $20.3 million school budget.
On the need for student activities funding, the Assembly was told the cost of travel is higher because ferry service cutbacks are causing all student activities travel to be by plane. Another issues is that students aren’t being housed during COVID.
School Board member Blossom Teal-Olsen said the board worked to “cut the fat out of our buildings and are running on bare necessity. It’s hard to go into this and figure out how I’m going to crunch numbers. I can’t say enough how thankful I am of all of you being open and being so supportive because it means we can do our jobs ....”
Although the presentation by the school district showed a projected $2 million shortfall, that figure did not show the contribution that will be made from the nearly $3.4 million fund balance.
The defunct Community Schools program has a $232,000 fund balance and student activities has a balance of $700,000, city officials said.
Hauser said the district does have a “healthy” fund balance but added: “When you look at state funding that has kept us at a flat BSA (base student allocation) since 2017 ... we are finding it more difficult to remain competitive with hiring and retaining our teachers and paraprofessionals and our administrators.”
The fund balance won’t last long if state funding remains flat, he said.
In discussing the additional requests for pool and school funding, board President Amy Morrison said one of the challenges over the years has been weighing the benefits of “do we fund the PAC, do we fund the pool. Unfortunately it puts us in a teaching position versus the pool.”
Kevin Knox asked, “But does that put the choice back on us?”
“Yes,” she said.
There was some discussion about a recreation program to fill the gap left by the closure of community schools but no decision was made.
The appropriations for schools approved by the Assembly Thursday night will be included in the city’s general fund budget that is now being drawn up.
