Rec commission is hot topic at Eggs & Issues
ERC levy runs through school district
By Bobbi Mlynar
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Emporia Recreation Commission operations dominated discussions at an Eggs & Issues forum Saturday morning during the last in a series of forums sponsored by the Emporia Area Chamber of Commerce and the Emporia League of Women Voters.
Members of the board of education, plus school Superintendent John Heim and Assistant Superintendent for Finance Rob Scheib, made up the panel for the meeting, held in the Mary Herbert Education Center, 1700 W. Seventh Ave.
Scheib and board president Angie Schreiber talked to the audience about data from assessment scores and information about school finance. Board member Mike Helbert, who represents the board on the recreation commission, later provided an update on talks that are underway about financing and operating the Emporia Recreation Center and its programs.
Schreiber said district enrollment has undergone demographic changes in the past 10 to 12 years.
In 1997, children considered “white” made up 70 percent of the student population; now, they make up less than 50 percent.
The percentage of children in the free or reduced lunch program was less than 50 percent in 1997.
“Now it is well over 60 percent,” Schreider said.
Studies have shown that students taking part in that lunch program also need additional support services, which causes an increase in the cost of their educations.
In 1997, 10 percent of the district’s students were part of the English as a Second Language group.
“That number of students has grown to approximately 30 percent,” she said. “So, the composition of students we have in our classrooms has changed over the past 10 years.”
Despite the changes – which bring additional costs and, in most school districts, lower assessment scores – the Emporia school district has shown academic improvement.
“The most dramatic piece (is) our reading proficiency has gone up significantly in all subgroups,” Schreiber said.
In 2002, about 50 percent of the students were considered proficient in reading.
“But that meant 50 percent of our students were not proficient,” she said.
She credited changes in teaching methods and instituting 1.5 hours of uninterrupted literacy time with a rise in scores.
“About 75 percent of our students are reading at the proficient level,” she said, adding that ESL and students with disabilities also are improving.
Mathematics scores showed similar changes.
Schreiber said that the district also has gone against expectations in its percentages of students who perform in the “exemplary” category. Academically proficient students’ scores were expected to suffer as emphasis was placed on improving performance of other students.
Instead, the percentage of exemplary student scores has gone from 9.4 percent to 25.2 percent.
“We’re not only helping the kids move to the middle, we’re helping kids move to exemplary,” Schreiber said. “(That) is a piece we’re kind of proud of.”
Scheib presented slides showing budget projections, in light of legislators’ passing a bill to reduce state aid by $116 per pupil.
The district has chosen to base its student numbers on a three-year average, which would show 4,319.10 full-time equivalency students for 2009-2010. That number would bring more state aid than using actual count or previous-year count. Districts can choose which of the three options best fits their needs.
Administrators estimate the district will lose about 100 students for the coming term.
“The three-year average allows you to stair-step down and plan for the worst,” Scheib said.
The district estimates the number of FTE students will increase because of “weighting,” which adds student equivalents – which translates into additional state aid monies – according to the additional expenses generated by the student groups.
Scheib estimated that weighting would add the following number of FTEs to the district’s budget in these categories:
-- High enrollment weighting, 149.74
-- Vocational, 69.7
-- Bilingual, 340.5
-- At-risk, 1,121.76
-- High at-risk, 246
-- Non-proficient at-risk, 10.1
-- New facilities weighting, 20.0
-- Transportation over 2.5 miles, 214.7
-- Virtual students, 75.9
-- Special education, 811.5
Base state aide for the 2008-09 school year had been set at $4,433 per pupil. The legislature trimmed out $33 of that amount, retroactively, for this school year because of budget shortfalls at the state level, leaving school districts with $4,400 per-pupil.
At the end of the legislative session on Friday, the per-pupil state aid had been cut another $116, which will go into effect for the 2009-2010 school year.
Heim said that 80 percent of the money to run Emporia schools comes from the state.
The amount of money lost from the state will depend on student numbers. District estimates, from best- to worst-case scenarios, would leave the district with $363,257 to $55,354 left from the surplus generated by last year’s special legislation.
The district had been in better financial condition than it had expected going into the budget sessions for the 2008-09 school year. Tyson’s downsizing, announced Jan. 25, 2008, and the potential loss of several hundred children of Tyson workers had prompted the legislature to pass a bill that limited the Emporia district’s budget loss to 98 percent of the previous year’s total.
The loss of students, however, was considerably smaller than anticipated, which brought about $2 million in additional funds to the Emporia district’s budget for 2008-09.
Because of the unexpected $2 million, the district voted to distribute an additional $400,000 funds as the second phase of wage increases for teachers and staff.
Funds remaining from the $2 million should help finance the district budget in the coming year.
“That’s if all those other weightings hold,” Scheib said.
After Scheib’s and Schreiber’s presentations, board member Mike Helbert talked about the unsettled situation concerning the recreation commission.
The commission wants a 2-mill levy increase, above the maximum 4-mill levy the state currently allows the commission to request.
The commission cannot levy its own tax, but must pass its requests through the school district, which has taxing authority.
The school district has authority to approve an increase in the recreation commission’s mill levy, Helbert said, and the public has the ability to file in protest of the levy.
However, the city owns many of the facilities used by the recreation commission, while the commission does the day-to-day operations of recreation.
ERC employees also mow city parks, with equipment donated by the city, and perform other tasks as part of a cooperative arrangement that is not mandated by a contract between ERC and the city.
City Attorney Blaise Plummer has drawn up a contract that would delinate responsibilities and obligations of each entity, and attorney Larry Putnam is working on a similar type of contract on behalf of the recreation commission.
“At that time, there was kind of a new wrinkle came up,” Helbert said, explaining that it had been suggested the city could give the facilities to the recreation commission, which then would assume responsibility for their operation and upkeep.
That would include the baseball diamond at Soden’s Grove, which cannot be used by the public.
Two softball fields at Santa Fe Park have been closed because they are unusable.
“I think at this point, hopefully, we are making more progress now in defining the responsibilities … than we have in a long time,” Helbert said, adding that he was not ready to recommend a solution yet.
“But I think everybody’s trying,” he said.
Bill Barnes, a member of the audience, said he believed the recreation commission should be put under authority of the city, as other communities have done. The current situation forces the recreation commission to take on responsibilities without the ability to finance them by levying taxes.
“The state legislature has created a monster of micromanagement,” Barnes said.
“I think there’s a lot of merit to that,” Helbert said. “… You’ve hit the nail on the head. But that is the structure we’re having to deal with.”
Recreation director Tom McAvoy said that he expects recreational needs to increase as baby boomers age.
“They’re very active. They want to stay active. They need programs,” McAvoy said. “We also have an obesity problem with kids. We’ve got to get kids away from exercising their thumbs at home” and get them exercising their bodies.
McAvoy said that the parking lot of the 30-year-old Beran Recreation Center gives evidence daily of the need for expanded facilities.
“There’s 72 spaces out there. It’s full all of the time,” he said.
Audience member Joel Phipps said that financing recreational programs are “extremely high” on his priority list, but he lacks the ability to vote directly on how the programs are funded.
Children and adults from towns surrounding Emporia use the recreation center and its programs without contributing to the tax base, he said.
“We’re paying for that,” Phipps said. “I’m tagged with that as a taxpayer, but I can do nothing to change it.”