COOS BAY PUBLIC SCHOOLS May 7, 2014 COOS BAY, OREGON BUDGET COMMITTEE MEETING

Transcription

1 COOS BAY PUBLIC SCHOOLS May 7, 2014 COOS BAY, OREGON BUDGET COMMITTEE MEETING The Budget Committee of Coos Bay Public Schools met on May 7, 2014, at Milner Crest Education Center, 1255 Hemlock Ave, Coos Bay, Oregon, to hear the Superintendent s Budget Message and to start deliberation on the Budget. The meeting was called to order at 6:30 PM by Rick Cooper, the current year s Budget Committee Chair. The audience joined in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance which was led by Rocky Place. Budget Members Present: Sam Aley Steve Schneiderman Rocky Place Debi Springsteen Jill Christiana Kelley Thompson Poore Adrian DeLeon Sue Nowlin Charlene Moore Rob Miles Mary Fields Rick Cooper Budget Members Absent: James Martin Ken Labrousse Others present included: Superintendent Dawn Granger, Business Manager Rod Danielson, Peggy Ahlgrim, Candace McGowne, Lynda Sanders, Teri Jones, Sue Walberg, Dale Inskeep, Rick Roberts, Joel Smallwood, Fred Baker, Lisa DeSalvio, Jan Schock, Shelly McKnight, Travis Howard, Doug Holland, Bryan Trendell, Linda Vickrey and Gordon Young from Channel 14. OPENING The Budget Committee Chair Rick Cooper welcomed everyone to the first Budget Committee meeting to hear the Superintendent s Budget Message and to commence work on the Budget. ELECTION OF OFFICERS Rick Cooper announced the first item of business would be election of Chair and Vice Chair for the Budget Committee. Rocky Place nominated Jill Christiana to be the Budget Committee Chair for , Sam Aley seconded. There were no further nominations. Charlene Moore made the motion, Mary Fields seconded, to elect Jill Christiana as Budget Committee Chair. The vote was unanimous. Jill Christiana nominated Rocky Place to be the Budget Committee Vice Chair for , Mary Fields seconded. There were no further nominations. Charlene Moore made the motion, Jill Christiana seconded to elect Rocky Place as the Budget Vice Committee Chair. The vote was unanimous. Jill Christiana introduced Superintendent Dawn Granger.

2 BUDGET COMMITTEE MEETING May 7, 2014 PAGE 2 BUDGET MESSAGE Superintendent Granger delivered the Budget Message as prescribed by Oregon Budget Law. The budget document presented a balanced budget of $27,497,221 for the General Fund. The Budget Message discusses proposed changes and is based on state revenues, student enrollment and increased costs. It is attached in full for reference and made a part of these official Minutes. The budget reflects the district s commitment to work toward the Governor s plan and achieve the goal of 100% graduation rate by The budget is based on a proposed statewide budget of $6.65 billion for K 12 education in Oregon s public schools. BUDGET PROCESS Superintendent Granger and Rod Danielson reviewed the new budget process and explained what the proposed changes were and how they were prioritized. Rod provided a thorough review of the General Fund. The Special Revenue Fund, Debt Service Fund and Capital Projects Fund will be reviewed next week. BUDGET DISCUSSION 1. Years of Teaching Experience During the review, Rick Cooper ask for clarification on the state reducing the funding due to hiring of teachers with fewer years experience. Why is the district losing teachers? There were a number of retirements the past couple of years that were replaced with newer teachers. Some teachers also left the area. Superintendent Granger explained that while teachers who have been in the profession make more money, additional resources are needed for new teachers for mentoring, buddy teachers and professional development. Districts throughout the area are experiencing the same issue. It doesn t make sense but you can t argue with the state. 2. Kindergarten Funding When asked about when the state is providing full day funding for full day kindergarten, Rod stated it would be for the school year. For & , it will be funded at 0.5 ADM. 3. Lifeskills Funding 90% of SCESD funding are resolution dollars. From that pot of money, the district decides on which services are needed. Lifeskills services are our highest priority for those funds. Once the district has spent the allocated resolution dollars, it is responsible for paying the balance. 4. Boiler Replacement When asked what gain of efficiency the district would see with replacing the 1972 boiler at Marshfield High School, Joel Smallwood stated that it would pay for itself within 4.2 years. PUBLIC INPUT There was no public input.

3 BUDGET COMMITTEE MEETING May 7, 2014 PAGE 3 NEXT STEPS Jill Christiana asked the Budget Committee to take the Proposed Budget home and review it in detail. Any questions should be e mailed to Rod Danielson and Dawn Granger by Friday, May 9, Answers will available and discussed at the next meeting, which is scheduled to be in the Community Room at Milner Crest Education Center, 1255 Hemlock Ave., Coos Bay, at 5:30 PM on May 14, The budget can be found at office/budget/ with the other budget documents. ADJOURN Jill Christiana thanked the Committee and the audience for attending and adjourned the meeting at 8:42 PM. Jill Christiana Budget Committee Chairman Peggy Ahlgrim Board Secretary

4 Budget Message Coos Bay School District Welcome and Opening Statement Welcome everyone and thank you for joining us for this important meeting. The budget message this evening officially marks the beginning of the budget year for the Coos Bay School District. This budget message is intended to provide you with a clear picture of our district vision as expressed in our district achievement compact and how we propose to use our funding to fulfill that vision. It will explain the expected revenues and expenditures for the upcoming school year. Background Coos Bay School District s State School Fund allocation increased this year as part of the state s additional funding for all schools in this second year of the biennium. Unfortunately, it also decreased due in part to a downward adjustment for the experience of our teachers and decreased enrollment from expectations. Additionally, we face increased costs for students in special education and to sustain our full day kindergarten program. For the school year, Coos Bay School District implemented a new process for budgeting which we hoped would assure the engagement of staff, parents, students and community in the development of our district budget. I am excited about the collaborative conversation we are beginning and look forward to it growing in strength and participation over the years to come. Through the process, stakeholders were able to learn about our current programs, share their visions and prioritize changes they would like to see made in accordance with our Achievement Compact vision. Although current revenue forecasts and funding are not able to support everything that we would like to see in our schools, at least we have input on additions and changes we feel would make our schools and district better places for learning. The input from our community was gathered at the building and program level and processed through school Site Councils. Administrators submitted proposed budgets to the district on March 1 st. These documents were used to develop a preliminary district budget. The preliminary budget far exceeded our revenue naturally. It contained numerous requests that were important to our community and which needed to be considered. That preliminary budget was reviewed by our administrators on April 2 nd at a collaborative meeting designed to review and prioritize the requests in the best interest of our students. Student safety was rated as the highest priority by the team with middle school counseling, class sizes, music instruction, support staff, facility maintenance, technology, athletics and texts also being given considerable weight. The priority lists the team created were considered in the creation of a final proposed budget for both one time and recurring expenses and are included in this document. Through our budget process, much support was demonstrated for student safety and increased counseling most specifically at the 4 7 level. There was also a focus on providing a collaborative comprehensive arts program k 12. This included opportunities for students to get art out into the community, for older students to mentor younger students and for community and professional groups to bring art to our schools. 1

5 Budget Message Coos Bay School District Budget Message We have many things of which we can be proud here in Coos Bay Schools. Improvements to our community outreach have resulted in active and enthusiastic participation in our facilities visioning, planning for fine and performing arts, attendance at school events and family education evenings which have been very successful. Our Achievement Compact is in the second year of implementation and has positively affected our district in many ways. Full day kindergarten has been a huge success with our students far exceeding learning expectations. Learning is improving at all levels. The use of research based strategies and our practice of guaranteed learning are part of that success. We will continue to rely upon this group and guiding document as we move forward both through the budget and planning for curriculum and instruction. Thanks to our Board Goal of implementing professional learning communities, we have systems and procedures well in place to support staff and to improve student outcomes. Throughout the district, our schools are showing improvements not only in academic areas but in attendance and participation in extracurricular activities. We will continue to work with general and federal funds to support staff and student learning and the work of our professional learning teams. Budget Highlights K 12: The safety concerns identified by our budget process were illustrated in the expressed need to update our phone system which would improve emergency communication as well as provide for voic so that staff can better communicate with our parents and community. This expense, to lease/purchase a VIOP phone system, is included in the budget as estimated $30,000 in contingency in hopes that the funding will be available. Technology: Technology to improve safety, communication and instruction has been a focus in our district for many years and our tech staff numbers have not grown quickly enough to support our growing needs. In many schools a need for increased technology support to the classroom and schools was discussed. In an effort to support teachers and learning, this budget proposal adds a 0.40 Tech 2 from the general fund and to combine that with a.60 FTE generated from contracts with other districts in order to gain a net full time 1.0 Tech 2 to help us with networking and support our schools with access to technology. Capital Projects: Funds have been set aside in this proposed budget for capital projects to address construction needs, and there is an increase in maintenance funding to improve the appearance of our facilities. Special Education: Throughout the district, providing for the needs of special education students is ongoing. They are included, whenever possible, in all aspects of the schools and classrooms as are their peers. We are proud to be able to provide every child with the support and staff to access our educational program so that they can be successful. The numbers of students requiring additional services and personnel to support their learning has increased over last year and the cost to support our children enrolled in special programs has increased as well. This is a consideration in the budget process as we seek to assure every child has what they need to learn and succeed. 2

6 Budget Message Coos Bay School District Class Size: In our enrollment projections for next year, class size is a concern at every grade, k through 7 th. Maintaining equity in class size between schools and grade levels is a goal we strive to attain. The district will be evaluating class size 8 12 to determine if staffing there is appropriate as we begin the year. We will also be closely watching class size K 7 to see if added support is needed. The current proposed budget contains contingency funding that could be used for additional staffing should there be a need to add elementary classroom aides to assist teaching staff. Because our enrollment is often unpredictable, the decisions about additional staffing will be made in the fall. Elementary Schools: The needs of our K 3 students continue to grow, especially with the second year of full day kindergarten and the increasing number of young students requiring special services. As proposed the budget includes an additional first grade teacher at Blossom Gulch Elementary and additional support for kindergarten classes at Madison Elementary School. Also included is essential additional space at Blossom Gulch where our Life Skills Program continues to grow and now requires a second classroom. The proposal also includes state grant funding for one time funding for additional books and literacy supplies at each school in order to better meet the demands of our the common core state standards. Middle Schools: At the 4 7 level there was consistent input about the need for both additional counseling and music. We would like to add staff so that each school has their own fulltime counselor to better serve student need through a data based school climate system, to provide for peer mediation, conflict resolution and continue to lead our state career readiness curriculum program. Although our community clearly prefers we increase our staff so that one full time music educator is at each middle school, our budget did not allow for it this year. There will be one full time music instructor between the two schools however, rather than two half time educators. This should improve the program and decrease the transitions for staff. High Schools: In , our high school campuses will be served by a full time mental health counselor to address issues of concern such as school crisis, individual assessments, and ongoing service to students who require more than a meeting with their school counselor or peer mediator to address their needs. Our current mental health counselor will spend their time in the other four schools as needed by students and families. The resulting staff at our two high schools will be three full time school counselors and one full time mental health counselor. Students at Harding and Marshfield also have access to a third mental health counselor through our on campus clinic. Increase in staffing at the high school also includes our band director who will return full time at the high school to help us to meet the community vision for fine and performing arts for Coos bay Schools. If you have questions, them to me at dawng@coos bay.k12.or.us and to Rod Danielson at rodd@coos bay.k12.or.us by May 9 th so they can be addressed at the May 14 th meeting. Thank you, Dawn Rae Granger, Superintendent Coos Bay Schools 3