By Scott Rochat
rochat@emporiagazette.com
Flint Hills Technical College will repay $31,283 of federal grant money that the state said was improperly spent.
The money came from the Carl Perkins grant and covered a number of expenses dating back to 2004, according to Dean of Instructional Services Steve Loewen. Perkins dollars can be used for a wide variety of purposes, but their use must be for a specific program, such as automotive technology or dental hygiene. Purchases that benefit the whole school are ineligible.
The trouble came, Loewen said, with expenses that fell in the gray areas. For example, Perkins dollars were used to buy "viewbooks," marketing guides that give information about the college's programs and the community of Emporia. A student who uses them is usually looking for information about a program rather than about the college, Loewen said, so the school felt it was program-specific. The state, which first audited the funds a year ago, did not.
"There's new legislation coming in July holding the states more accountable for their use of federal funds," Loewen said. "We were on the leading edge of the trend in my opinion."
The money will be repaid to the Kansas Board of Regents from reserve funds.
According to FHTC President Dean Hollenbeck, the regents originally said the college had $56,000 of ineligible expenses.
"We spoke with them for several months and finally this is where they're at," he said.
The college's board of trustees voted 4-0 on Monday to make the reimbursement. Trustees Marshall Miller, Brad Kraft and John Schwenn were absent.
"Whatever we bought, we still have," Hollenbeck said. "We just have to watch what we're purchasing and how we spend this in the future."
Is there a contract?
The board of trustees voted 3-1 for a new master contract. But that may not be good enough.
On most votes, the majority rules. But negotiations between a teacher and a school are a little different. According to state law, Loewen said, that contract has to have a majority of the entire board -- four votes in this case.
Trustee Jerry Fair asked if the law applied in this case. The law references local school boards, vo-tech schools and community colleges, but FHTC doesn't cleanly fit any of those categories.
"Our question is whether the term 'Board of Education' still applies to this board," she said.
Hollenbeck said he would consult the college's attorney for an opinion. Meanwhile, a special meeting of the board will be held later this month, though a date has not been set. The teachers and staff have already approved the contract.
The one nay vote came from trustee Lori Scott Dreiling.
The main change in the contract was a 5 percent increase in the amount paid for teachers. Part of that would be used to raise the base salary level by $1,000, which makes the base pay $29,250 for a new teacher with technical experience and no degree. The rest of the funds would be used to rewrite the salary schedule. For example, teachers with more than 20 years of experience could continue to get raises, rather than be frozen at their present pay level.
Budget
The trustees approved the 2008 budget without an official tuition increase.
As part of that budget, which starts on July 1, the college expects to take in about $660,000 of post-secondary tuition. That's up from about $542,000 this year. The change is due to a new flat-rate tuition fee of $75 per credit hour which raised tuition for some students while dropping it for others.
Tuition for high school students (which is paid by school districts) is projected to fall a little, from $384,000 to $335,000. That's the equivalent of losing eight students, Hollenbeck said.
If the master contract is approved later this month, expenses for the college would come to $4,782,134 versus revenues of $4,782,390, a difference of $256. The expenses include $250,000 that will be placed in a reserve fund for emergencies.