February 4, 2015 at 4:50 p.m.
School board aiming for February 2016 referendum
School board aiming for February 2016 referendum
District administrators informed the Operations and Strategic Planning Committee Monday that current estimates show the average deficit for the 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years will be over $5.6 million. Using those estimates, the administration suggested the referendum question be worded to ask voters to allow the district to exceed revenue limits by $5 million each year for three years.
Voters approved a three-year, $12 million referendum in February 2013.
"We know we're looking at probably $5 million," Superintendent Kelli Jacobi said.
"If you're looking at $5 million, you're looking approximately 60 staff members. I'm not saying (cuts) would all be in staff, but to help you visualize what that amount of money is, we have 170 to 180 staff members, so that's a third of our staff. That would be huge."
While panel members agreed to the February date for the vote, they said there are too many variables that need to be discussed before an amount can be finalized. In order to get the referendum question on the February ballot, the full board has to approve the time span and amount by Dec. 5.
Included in the variables committee members outlined were the red flags raised during the audit presentation discussed by the school board last month. During that presentation, three issues were highlighted. The first issue involves what are called other post-employment benefits (OPEBs) and the funds the district has to set aside to pay for the benefits. The other two issues involve added internal controls that should be put in place for the activities office and the use of district credit cards.
The committee is scheduled to discuss those issues next month. Committee member David Holperin said that discussion needs to take place before any decision is made regarding the referendum amount.
"I think it's very easy to set a date for when we want to have a referendum. I think it's going to be a difficult task to determine how much to ask for," he said.
"We have a brand new strategic plan that got passed in December and we haven't really even talked about facilities and where we're going with that over the course of the next three to four to five years. Additionally, you said it will be next month that we're going to talk about these recommendations from KerberRose (the accounting firm that handled the audit) about some of those red flag items."
"To me, the big one was the OPEB issue of being under-funded," he added.
"Somewhere, we have to find a balance of what we're going to do on that."
Another variable is future insurance costs. Jacobi said Director of Business Services Marta Kwiatkowski is currently working to lower the district's insurance costs.
"We're always (looking for ways to economize). Marta is working on insurance right now, because we're doing really well health-wise in our district with our employees," she said.
"We need to be using that as leverage, so she's really working on that this week - meeting with other insurance companies ... because we think we should see a benefit of reduced costs because of all of the good things our employees are doing to take care of themselves."
Kwiatkowski said she should have those numbers by "mid to end of April."
Other than that, she said the budgets for the three school years are currently based on assumptions.
"It's based on assumptions, so any of the assumptions can change," Kwiatkowski said.
"The biggest assumptions we have (are insurance). That's why we're waiting to finalize those numbers."
One trend that Kwiatkowski said will continue "for sure" is declining state aid.
"State aid is definitely going to drop because of your property values," Kwiatkowski said.
"There is a state provision that says the district will not drop more than 15 percent from the prior year, so that's what we're dropping - 15 percent every year."
The committee is hoping the local business community will support the referendum.
"When we first presented what we were looking at (for the most recent referendum), a number of people from some of the financial institutions in town here were at that meeting and then they came in and helped with kind of organizing the message there, to make it so people that they work with every day could understand it more, and that was a benefit," committee chairman Mike Roberts said.
"And the benefit (to) that (was) local businesses got behind the school and said we need the school to provide this, this and this."
But, before any of that can happen, further discussions must take place at the committee level, Roberts said.
"I think we should put together a timeline of what needs to be done (and) when for the Feb. 16 timeline," he said.
A prominent part of that timeline will be public education sessions, Jacobi said.
"There will be lots of public forums because we need to get our educating done," she said.
"We've got to get that started well in advance."
As the discussion came to a close, the committee directed Jacobi to create the timeline and gather the other needed information.
Marcus Nesemann may be reached at [email protected].
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