Members of the Cabarrus County Board of Education asked additional questions and made a few changes as they discussed their 2014-15 budget request during their work session. The board is scheduled to adopt its proposed budget during Monday’s business meeting.
This was the third time the board has discussed the proposed budget, which, after approval will be sent to county commissioners.
Since the board’s March 20 budget work session, Finance Officer Kelly Kluttz said she had made some changes to the budget request, based on members’ comments and concerns.
One of the changes was to the operating costs request. The latest budget proposal includes an adjustment in the current year’s budget and next year’s request to reflect the 1 percent raise the county commissioners approved earlier this year for school system employees. The budget proposal currently shows that the locally funded budget is about $49.2 million for the 2013-14 year, and the school board would request about $67.2 million for the 2014-15 year.
Kluttz also reviewed the continuation cost of $347,840, which is an increase in employer hospitalization costs due to the Affordable Care Act. She said Monday and at last month’s work session that there are substitute teachers who work more than 30 hours and would now receive health insurance or have their hours cut.
She said that the school principals said there are not enough available substitute teachers, and the quality of them would decrease if the system decided to reduce hours. Kluttz said Monday that school treasurers also have to spend time calling substitute teachers, so reducing the hours of substitute teachers would affect the time of other staff members, as well.
The board also talked about the request for about $2.7 million due to the charter school allocation. Based on charter schools’ projections, the system is planning for 915 more students to attend them than last year.
“Cabarrus County has an obligation to fund them. … I have to have the money, and if I don’t have the money, I have to go cut it somewhere else,” Kluttz said.
Even though some students initially decide to attend charter schools, some leave them and enroll in Cabarrus County Schools, board members said.
Kluttz said charter schools bill Cabarrus County Schools monthly, and the local funding is based on how many students are attending the charter schools at that time, but the state funding is based on enrollment at the beginning of the year.
“If a child leaves (the charter school) in the third month, the charter school keeps the (state) funding,” Kluttz said. “If they leave our school, (we) keep the funding.”
In the facilities and operations budget request, there is now a note about a study addressing inadequate investment in school facility maintenance that said that school systems should have one maintenance worker per 80,000 square feet. It adds that the system maintains about 5.8 million square feet in the Cabarrus County and Kannapolis City school systems, and, based on the study, there should be 72 skilled labor staff members. There are currently 64 staff members in facilities and grounds, 52 of whom are skilled laborers, according to the budget request.
As the board reviewed the budget request, member Carolyn Carpenter asked to switch two priority items in the non-facilities capital outlay budget request. The item ranked eighth on the list was $200,000 for middle and high school band instruments, and the one ranked ninth was $52,555 for two floor lift systems for buses to expedite repairs. Carpenter said the lift systems seemed like a safety issue.
“To me, that should go before a $200,000 item. … To me, getting band instruments, it will be nice to have, but it’s not something that is a safety issue and a dire necessity for our buses,” Carpenter said.
The board decided to switch those items.
Kluttz said that, since the March 20 meeting, she had also reduced the capital projects request, based on the board’s feedback. Board members talked about how important these projects are.
“There’s a great contrast between what we are talking about and (the commissioners’ plans),” said board member Jeff Phillips. “If we’re reading it right, it’s showing we’re going to get a million dollars for capital. We’re saying for roofs alone, we need more than $9 million. Telling us we’re going to get $1 million for all of this, including furniture for schools and new buses, is an absolute insult to every parent in this county that sends a child to our schools.”
Board Vice Chairman Barry Shoemaker added that the state has mandates for the number of spare school buses.
“If we don’t get this (funding), we may not meet the state mandate,” Shoemaker said.
The board will meet for its business meeting at 6 p.m. on Monday.
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