Cloverdale moving forward with 2020 school budget

Tuesday, August 13, 2019

CLOVERDALE -- Even though Cloverdale Schools has been fighting a decline in student enrollment, school officials and administrators are hopeful that the school corporation can continue to be stable budget-wise.

Superintendent Greg Linton presented an optimistic, but professedly realistic, outlook for Cloverdale Schools’ budget standing in 2020 to the Cloverdale School Board during its regular session Monday evening.

Linton began by providing a reality that has had the concern of school officials for a while, that of decreased student enrollment. Since the 2005-06 school year up to this year, the corporation has lost about 304 students.

In context, this figures in to how the corporation’s education fund is funded by the state. Indeed, Linton said that 98 percent of this fund is based on student enrollment as determined by the ADM, or average daily membership, in a public school system.

Linton also shared that the beginning cash balance for the corporation has steadily gone down as well. Compared to the differentiated balance of a little over $1,126,000, the decreasing difference of just under $638,000 for 2019 would stem some concern from administrators.

In his projected outcomes for the coming year which could affect budgetary missions, Linton said that enrollment could decrease by 30 students this year, though this is an assumption. Utility costs for the corporation could rise by 10 percent as well, with no certified positions expected to be added in the mix.

No salary increases are expected too, though Linton was quick to say that the corporation was making efforts to balance these concerns without stiffing teachers and staff.

“Even if it’s at zero percent, better enrollment only means more money,” Linton said. “It’s just that we are at the mercy of enrollment and the state in how we are able to be funded.”

Linton also cited the complexity index the state uses as an avenue through which Cloverdale Schools, as a corporation located in a community that is not considered wealthy, might not get the funding it needs. The index’s intent is to help school districts with consistent socioeconomic barriers to students get the money it needs.

However, the index has been criticized for not completely addressing these barriers to correlating with learning outcomes, and that school districts with higher numbers of poorer students are less likely to get what they need.

“You hate to smack the hand that feeds you, but we’d still like to have the spoon be full for everyone,” Linton said to agreement from the board and some in the audience.

After all of the considerations which were made, Linton demonstrated that the tax rate would now stand at $1.97, with a tax levy standing at not quite $4,030,000 to make up for the differences.

The rate was shown as being 53 cents more than the rates across Putnam and Owen counties, though the tax levies also went down. Linton provided that the new assessment was to be expected given that Cloverdale Schools’ assessed value has gone down by $50 million in the past year.

Despite these figures, the operations fund, which combines capital projects, transportation and bus replacement, and debt service fund were the only ones that influenced the proposed tax rate.

Linton demonstrated that the education fund could see a revenue of $12 million over the next 18 months. This was where his optimism lay in getting the school corporation back to being balanced fiscally, and to make necessary cuts without hurting students to keep Cloverdale on the right track.

After hearing Linton’s rationales for where Cloverdale Schools could stand money-wise next year, the board unanimously approved his request to advertise the budget as is stands now.

A special hearing will be held by the board on Aug. 26 to allow the public to ask questions about the budget, provide feedback and share concerns. The board will decide to adopt the budget at its regular meeting next month.

In other business, the board also approved a request by Linton of a new five-year copy machine lease for the corporation. Linton pointed out that this new lease would be less expensive than the previous contract, with Board President Vivian Whitaker calculating that about $31,000 would be saved per year.

The board also approved to declare outdated equipment at Cloverdale Elementary School as surplus to be removed. The items range from storage cabinets and shelves to old desks and VCR televisions.

Board members also approved to increase the annual fee for the Lifeskills program from $3 to $10. Linton explained that the increased fees would go toward purchasing hands-on materials needed for the program.

The board also approved the following personnel items:

• Resignations: Kristin Giles, high school guidance counselor; Zach Waycott, eighth-grade science teacher; Wade Fanning, fourth-grade teacher; Jessica Blake, elementary school instructional assistant; Shauna Rossok, middle school instructional assistant; Kimmy Winders, middle instructional assistant; Bonnie Helterbrand, high school secretary; and Bambi Wiley, elementary/middle school cafeteria; and Daniel Varnes, high school JV boys basketball coach;

• Employment: Sara Blair, high school guidance counselor; Susie Fidler, high school math teacher; Jamie Thomas, kindergarten teacher; Ivy Oberkrom, fifth and sixth-grade special education teacher; Maria Skiles, eighth-grade science teacher; Jessica Fulkerson, elementary school instructional assistant; Emmalee Wilson, middle school part-time cook/server; Laura Ohrt, substitute bus driver; Elizabeth Hawkins, bus aide; Valerie Nees, middle school instructional assistant; and Ali Staletovich, elementary school office assistant;

• Coaching hires: Susan Fidler, high school JV volleyball and varsity assistant girls basketball coach; and Greg Thomas, high school boys golf and JV boys basketball coach;

• Volunteer: Daniel Varnes, high school volunteer varsity basketball coach; and Tori Maldonado, middle school volunteer co-ed cross country coach.

The next regular meeting of the Cloverdale School Board is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 9 at 7 p.m. in the Arthur L. Johnson Administration Center near Cloverdale High School.

Comments
View 2 comments
Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. Please note that those who post comments on this website may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
  • *

    The problems will only get worse... its built into the system.

    Want to fix it?

    1) Eliminate the current funding model and go back to a system where property taxes pay for schools.

    2) Eliminate property tax exemptions for churches and other non-profits.

    3) Make agricultural property tax rates the same as business tax rates.

    4) Eliminate universal door-to-door bus service. Pare it down to a few major bus stops.

    5) Eliminate wasteful spending. Teach kids reading/writing/arithmetic and some history/civics. Everything else is fluff.

    6) Eliminate teachers unions.

    Do even a few of these things and you will start to see a marked turn around on the money situation.

    -- Posted by dreadpirateroberts on Wed, Aug 14, 2019, at 4:48 PM
  • Replying to Dreadpiraterobers

    1) that is a state issue that would be handled at the governor level and not much the local government can do.

    2) Unless the system is changed, that wouldn't matter also it defeats the purpose and principle of having a non profit organization if its taxed...also...this most likely wouldn't amount to much anyway.

    3) Ag is suffering deeply across the country already, You can't tax fields at the same rate you would a business...just doesn't make sense. IF this happened you would just eliminate every single small farm in the county.

    4) Define Few? Putnam is a VERY rural county. Where exactly would you like all of these kids to "walk" to? That invites a whole new set of safety concerns.

    5) Spending problem is a concern, why does one county have so many different super's? Would make more sense that they all combine to 1 single district with only 1 set of staff to pay for. Budgeting would probably be far superior too as they could share assets.

    6) General I would agree as I'm not a union person. That being said, these teachers haven't had raises in 3 years ( I believe). That union is probably the only thing saving what they currently have, there was an article the other day that stated that our neighboring states have seen a teacher salary increase over the past x amount of years to be 14,000...where as the Indiana average is like 6,000.

    -- Posted by lindsayrahnae on Thu, Aug 15, 2019, at 10:21 AM
Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: