Approval of a $13.2 million budget for 2019-20 that contains no salary schedule increase and a report on the athletic advisory committee highlighted Thursday’s meeting of the Salem R-80 school board.
Superintendent John McColloch said a 12.5 percent increase in health insurance costs was concerning enough to prevent adding funds to the salary schedule base. Certified staff will only receive their normal incremental step.
“I worked and worked and worked trying to add money to the base but the insurance has me scared,” he told the board.
“Obviously we’re not freezing any salaries, so each teacher’s going to get their step but I’m just not comfortable, with the insurance, asking for an increase in the salary schedule for next year. Hopefully the insurance thing will level off and we can get back on track in the future.”
Partly due to a high loss ratio of 129 percent for the 12 months ending Jan. 31, the health insurance premium charged by the South Central Education Consortium will go up $50 per employee per month in 2019-20 and the district must also pay a $155,049 assessment to help build up the consortium’s reserves.
Under its current health plan, R-80 pays $406 a month for coverage for each employee. That rate will increase to $456 per month this summer. Employees can add dependent coverage for an additional charge. Coverage is through United Health Care.
McColloch warned the board in March that the added expense could affect raises for 2019-20.
The new $13,2619,230 budget is based on revenues of $13,430,261. That figure represents a revenue increase from last year due to the state legislature fully funding the state aid formula, increased R-80 enrollment and higher average daily attendance, he said.
“ADA is going up because we had more enrollment this year and students came to school. I expect our revenues to increase next year. We were down this year but I expect them to be back up next year.”
The board also approved revisions in the current budget to cover unanticipated expenditures that arose during the just completed school year. One was the hiring of two paraprofessionals at a cost of $24,000 to help teachers at William Lynch Elementary after a late 20-student spike in kindergarten enrollment to start the year.
“Honestly they did a fantastic job with what they had to deal with this year,” McColloch said. “Those rooms were just packed as could be.”
Other unplanned expenditures included a workman’s compensation increase of $20,000, an additional $50,000 in food due to heavy Community Eligible Provision status food program participation, $50,000 in Construction Trades equipment to start the new program and $234,000 in state-reimbursable expenses for the Early Childhood Special Education Program for additional staff, professional services and bus transportation.
Transportation cost for the ECSSE program went up $100,000 when the previous provider, Durham Transportation, declined to renew its contract and R-80 was forced to switch to First Student, the only bidder, at a much higher cost.
He called the price “completely unfair” but said the district is required to provide transportation for the state program. “If that was R-80 taxpayer money we’d be doing something else,” he said.
In a report on the athletic advisory committee, board member Larry Maxwell said the group met Wednesday night to review its proposed mission and the roles to be set for various stakeholders, including the community, parents, students, teachers, coaches, the administration and school board.
SHS Principal Marty Anderson has been organizing the effort. “We were kind of going around in circles to start out with on funding and what should be improved and gripes and dislikes,” Maxwell said, but Anderson has corrected that. Anderson is handling gripes and dislikes individually while member Camron Erway is talking to community members.
Anderson said each stakeholder contributes to the success of the team. “We need to make sure everybody clearly understands their role and how to perform it,” he told the board. “Now we’re dragging it around getting input from everybody.” A community meeting also is being planned to gather input.
The committee’s mission is to improve the culture of the entire athletic program, Maxwell said. He noted that the petition submitted by a group of parents in February “kind of drew our attention to athletics. We were getting very little information about athletics at all for maybe several years. Now we’re going to get the communication that’s necessary,” he said, with Anderson overseeing the coaching staff.
In the fall, Anderson plans to be visiting practices, having conferences with coaches, providing feedback and working on the goals and encouraging coaches to get feedback from their assistant coaches in “the process of continual improvement,” he said.
Maxwell urged board members to step up their support of both athletic and academic events.
“I think we’re remiss sometimes in not getting in the buildings and looking at things point blank. That to me is part of our job,” he told the board. “We need to set some standards and start looking things over and letting people know what they’re doing well and what they’re not.”
Anderson said there is also money in the professional development fund to send coaches to workshop to improve their skills, just like teachers.
“Coaches should be treated no differently than teachers,” he said. “Last year was the first time they went to something. Everything we’re doing for teachers to improve professionally, we’re going to use the same system for coaches.”
Board President Bernie Sirois said everyone’s expectations are the biggest thing.
“If you’re going to be a Salem Tiger, these are your expectations,” he told the board. “I think there’s a lack of expectations among the kids and maybe the coaches as well. I think it’s been real loosey-goosey for quite a while. If we have expectations, the only way for us not to get embarrassed by something that happens is everybody’s got to know what the expectations are up front.”
In other business, Joel Gundelfinger and Issac Fones from McKinstry gave the results of the Facility Assessment Audit conducted this spring. Administrators will review the information and make a recommendation to the board.
The following school board committee assignments were made for 2019-2020: CSIP – Holly Erway; Federal Programs – Drew Whitaker; A+ Programs – Larry Maxwell; Safety – Dustin Howard; Technology – Chris Heavin; Health Services – Carrie Snider.
The following principals’ reports were presented:
William Lynch Elementary
Summer school was very successful. Summer school students were treated to a movie and popcorn day, a park day, and a visit from the fire truck. Each Friday they had a picnic lunch provided by our cafeteria. 101 students earned gift cards for attendance.
Projected enrollment for 2019-20: preschool-66, kindergarten-111, first grade-98.
Current enrollment: 255: Pre-K-66, Kindergarten-114, Grade 1-75. The proportional attendance rate for the year was 92.37 percent. Two students finished with perfect attendance.
Upper Elementary
The regular school year ended with an enrollment of 352. We had 95.5 percent of our students here 90 percent of the time for the 2018-2019 school year.
We had 179 students enrolled in summer school. We walked to the bowling alley, enjoyed an ice cream cone at Scoops and went to the park during our summer adventure. We ended the three weeks paying 158 students for their attendance.
High School
Ninety percent of students attended 90.88 percent of the time. In 2017 that figure was 90.85 percent.
Enrollment was at 578 at year’s end, compared to 565 in 2017-18 and 585 in 2016-17.
Recognition for East Central College graduates went to President’s List: Mackenzie Fore and Carson Mowery. The Vice President’s List included Sarah Parker and Kenisha Stienbarger.
During Summer School, seven students completed their Personal Finance course and 12 students completed their credit. Twenty-four students are enrolled in driver’s education.
AJ Tinker will be speaking about the Building Trades Program at the State Chamber of Commerce conference in October.
