By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
The Levy County School Board budget next year is expected to be about $71 million, but early projections show a shortfall of $174,447 in revenues in the general operating budget.
Finance Director Kim Lake explained the $44.3 million operating budget in a school board workshop on June 26. The remaining portions of the budget will be discussed in later hearings.
Lake said the challenges facing the district are flat or declining enrollment, increases in Florida State Retirement costs, increases in medical costs and unfunded or underfunded programs required by the state.
It’s no surprise that $34.3 million of the school board’s operating budget goes to fund salaries and benefits. Salaries and benefits are a big chunk of any governmental budget.
Lake discussed only the operating budget at the workshop because it has the biggest impact, she said.
“That is what we live or die by. That’s how we pay our teachers (and others),” she said.
Many small counties and cities are grumbling about the increases in the Florida Retirement System next year, but it’s a cost the school district must absorb if it participates in the FRS.
The remaining public budget hearings for the school board are a Truth in Millage (TRIM) hearing on July 23 at 6 p.m. during the regular school board meeting, a hearing to adopt the tentative millage and budget at 5:01 p.m. on July 31, and a hearing on Sept. 10 at 6 p.m. to adopt the final millage and budget.
STATE RESTRICTIONS
The school board is expected to carry forward about $2.5 million unrestricted cash from last year’s budget. Lake said an additional $675,000 of restricted carry-forward money and $725,000 of assigned funding will be carried forward.
Lake told the board that state rules and regulations restrict how the school board spends much of its money, and consequently, the board doesn’t have a lot of flexibility.
She said there are many areas in next year’s budget where additional money is needed including the underfunded state program to harden schools for security reasons; the underfunded state program to place school security officers on every campus, such as school resource officers; the underfunded state requirement to improve mental health programs for security reasons; and the underfunded instructional materials for the science program.
The school board will receive a minimum grant of $100,000 from the state to harden schools. The hardening costs that are not covered by the grant will come from what is known as capital outlay funds. The school board is required to spend money on hardening schools before it can make other capital purchases like school buses, according to Lake.
Lake’s budget folder, which she handed to the board and interested spectators, estimates the school district will lose $535,637 to McKay Scholarship vouchers next year. The Florida Department of Education gives parents of students with disabilities a choice to transfer out of their current school or out of the district, but under a new bill passed by the Legislature in the spring session students who complain of being bullied can receive a McKay Scholarship voucher to transfer to another school in the district or outside the district regardless of the outcome of the bullying investigation by the district. The district loses funding when a student transfers out of the district.
She said the aging “white fleet of vehicles” for the school district is a growing problem. Several vehicles are close to or have more than 300,000 miles on the odometer.
The white fleet consists of vehicles used by district mechanics to service school buses that break down on the route and it also includes the travel fleet for administrators.
Lake said there are also concerns about the current salary schedules and the potential problem of attracting and retaining talent in a tight labor market.
She said the percentage of money in the state budget available for public schools has declined since 2010.
SHRINKING EDUCATION DOLLARS, SCHOOL SECURITY
In the 2010-11 state budget, education received $22.5 billion out of a $70.4 billion budget, or 32 percent of the total budget. In next year’s $87.7 billion state budget, education will receive $28.3 billion, or 28 percent of the state budget.
“Education is getting a smaller piece of a larger pie,” said School Superintendent Jeff Edison.
One of the more visible problems for the school board next year is finding funding for school resource officers. The state is requiring at least one security officer in every school. The county has 10 public school campuses and two charter schools, which are considered public schools.
The school board has made a decision in discussions with Sheriff Bobby McCallum to staff every school campus with an armed school resource deputy. The problem is finding enough money to fund the program. The school board is transferring $509,000 of state money to the county commission for funding resource officers.
County commissioners will meet Monday afternoon in a budget workshop to decide how much money they would give to the school resource program. County Attorney Anne Brown has advised commissioners they are not responsible for funding the school resource program. Last year the commission allocated $550,000 for school resource officers. The commission funds the budget of the sheriff’s office.
SCHOOL SECURITY VS. AVAILABLE FUNDING
One security option for the school board would be using guardians. Guardians are school employees, or others, who are trained and armed to confront anyone that represents an “active threat” on campus. An active threat means anyone carrying a weapon like a knife, a gun or a bomb. The guardian program wouldn’t cost nearly as much as school resource officer, but McCallum met behind closed doors with the school board on June 26 and he said the board isn’t interested in using guardians. The school board wants trained professionals with arrest authority protecting schools.
School Board of Levy County Regular Meeting June 25, 2018
Posted July 2, 2018
