Mt. Pleasant School Board discusses future budget concerns

BY KARYN SPORY

Mt. Pleasant News

The district is financially healthy now, but Ed Chabal, director of business and finance at Mt. Pleasant Community School District, sees bumpy roads ahead.

Chabal told the board during its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday that as state aid and student enrollment continue to decrease, the district will need to become proactive to make sure problems don?t snowball.

?As you can see, the maximum spending authority has been going down over the last couple of years,? said Chabal during his finance report to the board. ?As you recall, the board last year, in response to this, voted to decrease expenditures by $500,000.?

The maximum spending authority is an Iowa specific term that indicates how much a district is legally allowed to spend a year. The number includes district costs, pre-school funding, instructional support levy, educational improvement funds and the prior year?s unspent balance, to name a few.

Think of the school?s budget like any household checkbook. As revenue or income decreases, but expenditures stay the same, dipping into a family?s savings account, or the district?s unspent balance from the prior year may pay costs, or bills. However, this action won?t be sustainable forever.

?This is an early indication that you do have problems, they are not serious problems, but if you don?t take care of this soon and don?t cut expenditures it?s just going to snowball as the unspent balance goes down,? he said.

?How soon is soon?? asked board member Joy Conwell.

?In the next couple of years,? said Chabal. He added that, in his personal opinion, if the district made smaller cuts each year, then the district might be able to avoid making another $500,000 cut at one time.

Chabal said he is looking forward to the fiscal year 2017 budget, but still does not have numbers for Supplemental State Aid. The Governor previously recommended a 2.45 percent increase, which would generate $328,489 in new money. However, nothing will likely be decided until after the December meeting of the Iowa Revenue Estimating Conference.

While on the subject of money, Interim Superintendent Dr. John Roederer said the board might have an equipment request at its next meeting.

?The high school has put together a team to plan the one-to-one initiative,? he said.

The team would like to purchase 20 machines, 10 Macbooks, five HP and five Lenovo laptops. High School Principal Todd Leichty said the team wants to test out the equipment to see what would be best for the students and teachers.

Leichty assured the board the machines purchased would not go to waste once a decision was made. ?What we buy will be 100 percent used no matter what we choose,? he said, noting if Macs were chose, the school has several programs that can only be ran on Microsoft equipment.

Also during the meeting, Roederer gave the board an update on the superintendent search. Roederer said the ad has been placed on Teach Iowa and that he?s heard some interest already.

Roederer said he didn?t look to receive any applications until closer to the due date of Dec. 11.

Roederer added he had received names of those interested in participating in a stakeholder group for candidate interviews.

The board is planning a community forum to discuss the superintendent search and hear what qualities and attributes the community would like to see in the next leader of the school district. The forum will be held on Monday, Nov. 30, at 6 p.m., in the high school media center.

In other business, the board:

? Approved the hiring of Julia Tran, food service; Lyle Murray, assistant girls track coach; Sibyl Cox, assistant varsity girls track coach; and Phil Kenney, assistant boys track coach.

? Approved the resignations of Ryan Glandon, middle school custodian; Christin Petry, Lincoln Elementary one-on-one para educator; and Barbara Blint, Harlan Elementary one-on-one para educator.

? Approved the termination of Deb Lee as a middle school one-on-one para educator, due to the student leaving the program.

? Approved the revision of board policy 204.7, which indicates if a procedure is not provided for within the policy or statue, procedure will be determined by Robert?s Rules of Order, the latest edition. The board also approved adding in, ?The board president is not excluded from voting rights.?

? Referred board policies 302.1-302.4, which deals with the superintendent?s qualifications, appointment, functions and evaluation to the Policy Committee for further review.