2012 Budget Chat with USD 253 Asst. Superintendent Rob Scheib
August 11, 2011
2012 Budget Chat with USD 253 Asst. Superintendent Rob Scheib
Moderator: Well, it's time to start our second of three budget chats today. Our guest now is Rob Scheib, Assistant Superintendent of the USD 253 school district. He is here to answer your questions about the school district budget and any other questions you may have. It looks like we are ready to go so we can get started with the first question.
moderator: What are the significant changes to the budget this year?
Rob Scheib, USD 253 Asst. Superintendent : Thank you for asking me to participate. Our budget was approved last night by the Board of Education. Some of the challenges in this years budget include the loss of assessed valuation, down from 172,768,156 to 165,985,688 this year. New facilities weighting will end for the addition to Village Elementary School. Supplemental general fund state aid will also fall from 92% of the 100% owed the district last year to 83% this year. The budget form has an additional fund added this year for the reporting of activity fund revenue and expenditures (gate receipts and fund raising). The district will also be required to reduce the amount of dollars in the contingency reserve fund by $392,956 or to 6% of the general fund. Increases this year include an increase in bond and interest fund state aid by 1%. Also, special education aid will increase per special education teacher from $24,250 to $28,900 to prevent the federal government from pulling millions federal aid to the state for violating maintenance of effort requirements. Federal food service aid will also increase from $2.875 per free meal to $2.947.
moderator: How will the move from the Lowther Buildings impact the overall budget? Are we seeing a savings compared to last year?
Rob Scheib, USD 253 Asst. Superintendent : Closing the Lowther buildings will eliminate transitions for students in addition to saving dollars in the budget. The district will save $160,000 by not filling 5.5 staff positions. We will also save an additional $515,000 in other savings such as energy costs and annual maintenance through the closure.
moderator: How is our teacher pay scale? Are we positioned to compete for the best teachers on the market?
Rob Scheib, USD 253 Asst. Superintendent : The base salary plus fringe benefit total is $38,535. The district currently ranks 59th in the state in average teacher salary and 92nd in base plus fringe benefit out of 289 districts.
moderator: What impacts will issues with State funding have on the budget, and how will we overcome them?
Rob Scheib, USD 253 Asst. Superintendent : Base state aid funding has dropped from $4,433 per student in 2008 to $3,780 per student this year. The total lost to the general fund is $3,893,176 and an additional 17% loss in state aid to the supplemental general fund. To overcome the cuts, the Board of Education has implemented recommendations from a district wide efficiency study by the Center of Innovative School Leadership and an early retirement incentive that saved the district over $1.4 million in the 2010-11 and the current school year. The district has assumed management of the Turning Point Learning Center and the Flint Hills Learning Center from ESSDACK saving the district an additional $250,000 per year starting this year.
moderator: How does our budget now compare to School Distric budgets of 5 and 10 years ago?
Rob Scheib, USD 253 Asst. Superintendent : 2001-02 General Fund Budget was $25,850,439 with a base state aid per pupil of $3,870 2006-07 General Fund Budget was $29,853,340 with a base state aid per pupil of $4,316 2011-12 General Fund Budget is $28,564,304 with a base state aid per pupil of $3,780 The difference between the 2001 and 2011 budget is that our poverty rate is much higher today so we qualify for more at-risk aid, and more of our teachers have completed the college coursework to qualify for the additional certification required for state bilingual aid. At-risk aid adds $5,424,678 to this years budget and bilingual aid adds $1,622,376.
Moderator: Well, it looks like that is all the time that we have today. On behalf of The Emporia Gazette and its readers I would like to thank Rob for taking time to come down and take part in our online chat today. Don't forget to check back in 30 minutes for our final chat of the day when our guest is Dan Slater, Lyon County Controller.