Warsaw Schools Keeps Eye on State Budget
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
It has to complete the two-year budget by April.
At the Warsaw Community Schools public work session Tuesday, Chief Financial Officer Kevin Scott discussed the impact the state budget could have on the corporation.
“The General Assembly is in session. Every two years, one thing that they have to do by state law, is pass a state budget. They’ve been running projections for school districts, and K-12 education is half the state budget. There are significant changes,” Scott said. “The projections that I’ve seen, they’re counting full-day kindergarten kids as 1.0, just like a first-grader. So they are pushing significant dollars – for us, several million dollars into the Foundation amount, but the Complexity dollars we get has gone down significantly, so there’s this shell game going on with the funding formula.”
A school corporation’s general fund gets money through the state basic grant. There are multiple components to it. The Foundation amount is the base amount a school district gets per student. Complexity dollars are added financial support a district gets historically based on factors like its free and/or reduced lunch population, geography and transient population.
Another issue Scott said he heard about is that around April 1, the state will get its final revenue forecast and the state’s revenue has continued to miss its forecast amount in recent months.
“I’ve talked about the impact of losing 7 cents on a dollar’s worth of gas, gas going from $3.50 to $2.50 a gallon. But they’re also seeing shortfalls in income tax revenue and gaming tax. Gaming has been on the decline for quite awhile, but we’ll see where that goes,” Scott said. “Right now, they’re still showing projections statewide, if you rolled up all the school districts, of increased dollars in both years in the coming two-year budget, which will start in July.”
Board member Curt Hermann joked that they could just borrow money from a foreign government. “Oh, that’s the country, not the state,” he said.
Scott joked back that they could print dollars with Board Secretary Randy Polston’s head on them and “see how far we get with that.”
“Anyway, I’m just giving you a head’s up. Significant changes are being talked about and we’ll see where it goes,” Scott said.
Metzger asked if the funding goes through the way the state general assembly is talking about, will it go down per school?
“No, it will actually go up per school, if this is able to survive,” Scott replied.
He said WCS gets $4,587 in Foundation and $1,145 in Complexity funding, which in the past was based on its free and reduced lunch count. The state moved that to free textbook rental, which didn’t affect Warsaw much. Now the state is talking about basing that just on free students certified through the state.
Scott said when all is said and done, he expected the dollar amounts to shrink because of shortfalls in the current revenue.
February’s student enrollment count was down at Warsaw Community Schools so the last four months of this fiscal year through June will see a decrease in funding of $88,000, Scott also reported to the board.
That’s $22,000 a month.
This morning Scott said the enrollment decline was within the number of early high school graduates. Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert said 31 students graduated early. In the past, a student count was only done in September and the state based a district’s funding on that number. Now there are two annual student count days – one in September and one in February.
Compared to last year, Scott said, “That would be about $50,000 a month off of the last four months last year because last year the last four months adjusted up and we had an increase, which is unusual. We will continue to monitor that.”
But on a two-month, year-to-date basis, Scott said the school corporation was in great shape. “We’re right where we were last year, about 86 percent of the budget left,” he said.
In another issue, a hearing interpreter left the school corporation and the district is looking for a replacement.
Scott said, “I just had a conversation with (Director of Special Services) Amy Hobbs this afternoon and we had a person resign. And she has searched high and low and statewide, and is just struggling to find interpreters so we’re paying a service.”
“It’s probably an extra $4,000 to $5,000 a year, but we need to find a replacement. So if you know someone – friends or family ... please call Amy Hobbs,” he said.
The employee who resigned was paid about $45,000 per year plus benefits.
Jay Baumgartner later asked Scott about the cost of repairs to a bus. Scott said the $17,000 was for one bus that had an engine problem.
“Buses age and this one was 10 or more years old. We used to be on a 10-year replacement cycle, so that would have been an expense we would have dodged and traded that bus in. But the state, in an effort to try to keep property taxes down, they went from 10 to 12 years and then instituted the (property tax) caps which only allowed the revenue to us to grow by an inflation factor, which is under 3 percent a year,” Scott said. “So in practicality, districts are replacing buses on a longer cycle than 12 years and where you see that is in repair expense in the transportation operating fund – so another pressure on transportation.”
Board member Dan Metzger told Baumgartner that the figure for the repair was “not out of line.”
At the 12-year cycle, Baumgartner asked how many miles were put on a bus by the time they are replaced. Scott said they ranged from 150,000 to 160,000.
In one last item from Scott, he said because of the Town of Claypool’s wastewater billing problem that dates back to 2011, it presented WCS with a “square-up” bill of $6,500 it will be paying next month.
He said it was researched and the dollar figure seems right. He noted that WCS pays less on wastewater at Claypool than it does in Winona Lake.
“If you look at our buildings, we’re kind of all over the place,” Scott said. “Depends where they’re at and the community they’re in.”
In other business, the board:
• Reviewed a draft of the 2016-17 calendar.
• Reviewed textbook adoptions for world languages.
• Heard a report on the changes for ISTEP+ this year. The testing window goes through Friday.
• Will hold its regular monthly meeting at 4 p.m. Monday.[[In-content Ad]]
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It has to complete the two-year budget by April.
At the Warsaw Community Schools public work session Tuesday, Chief Financial Officer Kevin Scott discussed the impact the state budget could have on the corporation.
“The General Assembly is in session. Every two years, one thing that they have to do by state law, is pass a state budget. They’ve been running projections for school districts, and K-12 education is half the state budget. There are significant changes,” Scott said. “The projections that I’ve seen, they’re counting full-day kindergarten kids as 1.0, just like a first-grader. So they are pushing significant dollars – for us, several million dollars into the Foundation amount, but the Complexity dollars we get has gone down significantly, so there’s this shell game going on with the funding formula.”
A school corporation’s general fund gets money through the state basic grant. There are multiple components to it. The Foundation amount is the base amount a school district gets per student. Complexity dollars are added financial support a district gets historically based on factors like its free and/or reduced lunch population, geography and transient population.
Another issue Scott said he heard about is that around April 1, the state will get its final revenue forecast and the state’s revenue has continued to miss its forecast amount in recent months.
“I’ve talked about the impact of losing 7 cents on a dollar’s worth of gas, gas going from $3.50 to $2.50 a gallon. But they’re also seeing shortfalls in income tax revenue and gaming tax. Gaming has been on the decline for quite awhile, but we’ll see where that goes,” Scott said. “Right now, they’re still showing projections statewide, if you rolled up all the school districts, of increased dollars in both years in the coming two-year budget, which will start in July.”
Board member Curt Hermann joked that they could just borrow money from a foreign government. “Oh, that’s the country, not the state,” he said.
Scott joked back that they could print dollars with Board Secretary Randy Polston’s head on them and “see how far we get with that.”
“Anyway, I’m just giving you a head’s up. Significant changes are being talked about and we’ll see where it goes,” Scott said.
Metzger asked if the funding goes through the way the state general assembly is talking about, will it go down per school?
“No, it will actually go up per school, if this is able to survive,” Scott replied.
He said WCS gets $4,587 in Foundation and $1,145 in Complexity funding, which in the past was based on its free and reduced lunch count. The state moved that to free textbook rental, which didn’t affect Warsaw much. Now the state is talking about basing that just on free students certified through the state.
Scott said when all is said and done, he expected the dollar amounts to shrink because of shortfalls in the current revenue.
February’s student enrollment count was down at Warsaw Community Schools so the last four months of this fiscal year through June will see a decrease in funding of $88,000, Scott also reported to the board.
That’s $22,000 a month.
This morning Scott said the enrollment decline was within the number of early high school graduates. Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert said 31 students graduated early. In the past, a student count was only done in September and the state based a district’s funding on that number. Now there are two annual student count days – one in September and one in February.
Compared to last year, Scott said, “That would be about $50,000 a month off of the last four months last year because last year the last four months adjusted up and we had an increase, which is unusual. We will continue to monitor that.”
But on a two-month, year-to-date basis, Scott said the school corporation was in great shape. “We’re right where we were last year, about 86 percent of the budget left,” he said.
In another issue, a hearing interpreter left the school corporation and the district is looking for a replacement.
Scott said, “I just had a conversation with (Director of Special Services) Amy Hobbs this afternoon and we had a person resign. And she has searched high and low and statewide, and is just struggling to find interpreters so we’re paying a service.”
“It’s probably an extra $4,000 to $5,000 a year, but we need to find a replacement. So if you know someone – friends or family ... please call Amy Hobbs,” he said.
The employee who resigned was paid about $45,000 per year plus benefits.
Jay Baumgartner later asked Scott about the cost of repairs to a bus. Scott said the $17,000 was for one bus that had an engine problem.
“Buses age and this one was 10 or more years old. We used to be on a 10-year replacement cycle, so that would have been an expense we would have dodged and traded that bus in. But the state, in an effort to try to keep property taxes down, they went from 10 to 12 years and then instituted the (property tax) caps which only allowed the revenue to us to grow by an inflation factor, which is under 3 percent a year,” Scott said. “So in practicality, districts are replacing buses on a longer cycle than 12 years and where you see that is in repair expense in the transportation operating fund – so another pressure on transportation.”
Board member Dan Metzger told Baumgartner that the figure for the repair was “not out of line.”
At the 12-year cycle, Baumgartner asked how many miles were put on a bus by the time they are replaced. Scott said they ranged from 150,000 to 160,000.
In one last item from Scott, he said because of the Town of Claypool’s wastewater billing problem that dates back to 2011, it presented WCS with a “square-up” bill of $6,500 it will be paying next month.
He said it was researched and the dollar figure seems right. He noted that WCS pays less on wastewater at Claypool than it does in Winona Lake.
“If you look at our buildings, we’re kind of all over the place,” Scott said. “Depends where they’re at and the community they’re in.”
In other business, the board:
• Reviewed a draft of the 2016-17 calendar.
• Reviewed textbook adoptions for world languages.
• Heard a report on the changes for ISTEP+ this year. The testing window goes through Friday.
• Will hold its regular monthly meeting at 4 p.m. Monday.[[In-content Ad]]
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