|
Still no increase in wages Negotiating stance won't be changed despite extra funds Staff Writer The Brainerd School Board Monday stood firm on its previous decision that it wouldn't negotiate for any wage increases for its five non-certified unions for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 contracts.
The decision came after board members learned last week that the district has more money than it thought it had.
Board members met in closed session Monday to discuss their negotiation strategy with the five non-certified union groups, including secretaries, custodians, educational assistants, interpreters for deaf students and food service employees.
After the 1-1/2-hour closed meeting, board chair Reed Campbell said board members decided to stick with their earlier decision to not negotiate for any wage increases for the next two years. The board had earlier informed union representatives of this decision.
Steve Dickinson, director of business services, gave additional information after the meeting about the extra funds the district and its independent auditors discovered after working to close out the books on the 2007-08 school year.
Dickinson said the district as late as this summer was projecting an unreserved fund balance around $200,000 but in recent weeks learned that the balance was actually closer to $1.8 million, or an extra $1.6 million. Dickinson said the difference is attributed to expenditures coming in under budget and revenues that came in higher than expected.
Dickinson said district staff have noticed during the past few months the trend that expenditures were coming in under budget in several areas. For example, substitute teacher and substitute educational assistant costs were under by about $150,000 than budgeted and heating costs came in under by about $90,000, which was about 10 percent of the entire heating budget.
He said the district learned in late August it received at least $600,000 more in special education funds from the state than was anticipated. He said the Legislature changed its formula this year for the way the state Department of Education reimburses school districts for special education services. In the past, the district was reimbursed two years later after services were performed and Dickinson said this year the funding formula was based on the current year.
Early this year the state Department of Education notified school districts that it would have to reduce its reimbursement for special education costs because there was more demand statewide than had been projected. At a board meeting in February, former Superintendent Jerry Walseth told board members the district would see a reduction from about 88 percent to about 80 percent of total special education revenue and the district, by law, could not reduce its own special education expenditures but had to absorb those added costs from its general classroom expenditures.
Dickinson said the district remained conservative in its budgeting, taking these factors into account. He said the final numbers for what revenues the district actually receives for special education funding from the state for fiscal year 2008 may still not be fully known until as late as March or April of 2009. Dickinson said this is typical.
"In general, it was a very significant improvement in special education revenue, but with the transition (in funding) it makes it difficult to budget it," said Dickinson.
While Dickinson said it is good news that the district is under, not over, its budget, the district's unreserved fund balance remains low, about 2.3 percent of the total budget. Several years ago the district maintain a healthy unreserved fund balance around 10 percent.
Board members said the extra money is good news for the district but most said they need to decide as a board what the next step will be.
"I was just as shocked as anyone else," said board member Bob Nystrom. "It's been a tumultuous year. We had to make some very large cuts. It's a good situation to be in, but we still have a tough road going forward. I think it's good news. I had hoped I would have heard this a couple of months ago but now, after thinking about it, I understand. ... Until the audit team came in late August, we didn't know how this was going to end."
Nystrom said as finance committee chair, he believes there has been no "impropriety" involved in this situation, that it was a matter of revenues coming in higher and expenditures coming in lower than expected, resulting in a more positive financial outlook.
"For the public, sit in our shoes," said Nystrom. "We may have gone the other way."
"It gives us some breathing room and I think that's a good thing," board member Ruth Nelson said. "The board as a whole has to figure out what to do with it, if it stays in the unreserved fund balance or not."
"We're going to review it carefully," board member Ruth Gmeinder said of the extra $1.6 million. "We don't want to overreact."
"We're going to take it slow and have discussion about what our priorities will be," Campbell said of the board. "It's all recent news to us and it's basically good news."
Board member Kent Montgomery could not be reached for comment following the meeting. Board member Lew Hudson, who was not able to attend Monday's meeting, was reached by phone Monday afternoon.
"I am delighted at the prospect of additional money being available than what we anticipated," said Hudson. "At this point I'm unprepared to discuss what we might or might not decide to do with that. But I'm certainly pleased the finances are improved."
Walseth, when contacted last week, said the extra funds are "great news for the district. What it suggests is revenues and expenditures are aligned." Walseth said it will allow board members to have a dialogue as a board about what to do with this one-time extra funding but it doesn't change the challenge for the future of the district.
JODIE TWEED may be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.
To Subscribe to the Brainerd Dispatch, Click Here.
Note: Comments are not edited and don't represent the views of The Brainerd Dispatch. Please read our posting rules in the terms of service policy. To report a post that may be inappropriate, click the triangle alert icon.
|
|
Top Commented Articles
