Bronaugh R-7 board wrestles with budget options

It came down to these words, cash flow. On Monday evening, with six of seven members present (Corey Yount was absent), those two words weighed on the minds of the Bronaugh R-7 Board of Education as they met in special session to approve a finalized current budget and adopt a budget for the 2018-2019 school year.

Following the regular monthly meeting eleven days earlier, Superintendent Dr. David Copeland had said, “All public schools in Missouri have students with IEPs (individual education program) and most of the time they’re very well served by a special education teacher and maybe one or more para-professionals working with the student.”

The superintendent then spoke about the High Need Fund and a problem he thinks the Missouri General Assembly needs to fix.

The High Need Fund provides financial reimbursement to districts for special education students when costs exceed three times the cost of a typical special education student.

“The problem we have is not with students, their needs or their families,” said Copeland. “Look, if it was my child, I’d demand the district do all it can to provide the best possible education for my child.”

So just what is the problem?

The superintendent said, “Well, according to an email the district received, the typical time it’ll take for us to receive the portion which the state will reimburse us is currently 12 and they warned us it would be likely 18 months from the time we submit our costs until the time we see the money,”

What does this mean for a small district such as Bronaugh R-7?

Explained Copeland, “Our budget looks great but when we have to wait 12 to 18 months to be reimbursed for over $200,000 in costs that means we don’t have a budget problem, we have a cash flow problem.”

At the mid-June board meeting the superintendent told the board about efforts to lobby the legislature about this problem.

When it was time to take a preliminary look at next year’s budget, he spoke of trying to move the district’s base salary from $27,714 up to at least $28,000 and provide help to those who participate in the district’s health insurance plan which will take took a sizable jump in the premium this year.

Yet on Monday night, as board member Jill Walrod put it, “I want to reward staff for a good year but there’s too many unknowns. What happens if we run short of cash and can’t make payroll or pay bills?”

At the earlier meeting on June 14, Copeland presented a sheet showing the cost of salary increases ranging from a two to a five percent increase as well as providing a $25 per month increase in the amount paid for health insurance by the district.

The superintendent also reminded the board of being surprised and concerned when in mid-December of 2017, the district’s bookkeeper informed him that for the first time in years, the district’s cash on hand had fallen below $200,000.

Doing some quick calculations based off the financial report distributed at the special meeting, board member David Diggins looked at Copeland and said, “It looks like you need almost $100,000 to meet payroll and pay bills.”

Nodding in agreement with that estimate were Copeland and Gail Shaw, the superintendent’s secretary who keeps track of bills and who is on hand for nearly every board meeting.

Those familiar with school the cash flow of public school districts are well aware of how Missouri school public school districts, including Bronaugh R-7, start to receive property tax proceeds in the month of January.

Said board vice-president, Bill Rainey, “Hopefully it won’t take 18 months but if it did, it’s possible we could float over $400,000 before we saw a dime of reimbursement.”

As that sobering thought sunk in he added, “This time next year we’ll know where we are.”

Walrod again spoke of the outstanding effort put forth by teachers and other staff alike.

“Our salaries are low and yet we have a number of staff who’ve been here for years. We need to reward them because they help make this a special place,” she said.

The hesitation in her voice made it easy to anticipate her next words.

“But as you said Bill, we just don’t know and we can’t endanger the district,” said Walrod.

Board President Ryan Linn raised the matter of a district certificate of deposit which serves as the district’s reserve fund; Shaw retrieved the most recent bank statement.

“It’s nice to know we’ve got some reserve funds but it’d be too easy to go through them and then we’d have nothing,” said Linn.

Copeland told the board the proposed budget they had been looking at had no increase to the base salary or to health insurance but it did have the increases which would come as certified staff move along the district’s career and salary steps.

With frustration in their voices, sadness in their eyes and some shaking their heads, the motion to accept that budget was adopted unanimously.

Prepared by Principal Jordan Dickey, a two-page summary of proposed changes to the 2018-19 school handbooks was distributed and reviewed in detail.

These included a listing of the district’s five character education assemblies, a notice that pre-school will not be held on Fridays, a change in the consequences for cell phone misconduct, as well as a clarification that all prom dates, must be under age 21.

An addition was made stating “all class web pages and social media pages must be approved by the principal before going live” and that “administration must have access to the accounts at all times.”

The board approved this as well as Dickey’s professional development plan for the coming year. One feature of that plan will be the institution of the district’s suicide prevention plan as mandated by the state. The various schools in the Vernon County/Golden Valley Conference will gather for a meeting on this at Ballard in September.

Linn informed the board that he and board treasurer Walrod had renewed the Pearl Martin Fund CD.

The $75,000 CD was renewed for a year and went from the old interest rate of 1.25 percent to 2.6 percent.

Due to the Vernon County Youth Fair, the next R-7 board meeting will be held on July 16 at 7 p.m.