Mount Vernon Schools approved additional reductions to next year’s budget at its April 17 meeting, as well as backfill for employees impacted by the cash stipend reduction for the district.
All of the costs listed are targets for the district to adhere to in order to lower the unspent balance of the district and improve the solvency ratio of the school district.
The non-staff savings the district considered include:
• Saving $40,000 of Area Education Agency Media funds he district receives by allotting it to the general fund.
• Saving $100,000 of professional development funds the district receives by allotting it to the general fund.
• Saving $80,000 by not hiring an additional elementary staff position for large upper elementary class sizes next year.
The board also reversed its decision on reducing Professional Learning Coaches’ $1,000 stipend for 25 teachers, which would have saved a total of $25,000. Instead, it reduced the stipends that Teacher Learning Coaches receive by 50 percent for the coming school year.
Overall, the newly approved cuts for the district amounted to an additional $250,000 in savings on top of the already-approved $615,000.
The board unanimously approved the proposed targets for the district next school year.
Discussion on the items up for cuts
The district’s AEA funding it receives for media support is the portion of the amount the district has control over for media usage. $60,000 still flows through to the AEA for the district’s media access needs. All funds related to special education still go to the AEA for support.
Board member Suzette Kragenbrink said she was concerned with what media and services would need to be eliminated if the district maintained the $90,000 in the general fund.
Superintendent Greg Batenhorst said the district is still waiting for the pricing of some AEA items for the district to see total costs.
Kragenbrink said she knows that funding has been used for science, social studies, and other avenues.
“We haven’t bought a new encyclopedia set in years because we have access to that through the AEA,” Kragenbrink said. “It’s hard to recommend a cut here not knowing what will be impacting.”
Board member Jeremy Kunz said the board could plan on saving $45,000 from AEA funds as a goal, but one brutal winter of heavy snow could wipe that plan out.
“The plan is we don’t want to reduce on what our children receive benefits from the AEA,” Kunz said.
In the end, board member Jason Clark recommended keeping $40,000 of the AEA money in the general fund at the moment, and reevaluating it later.
When it came to the $100,000 in savings from professional development, all board members were in agreement. The district proposed these cuts from day one, and is confident that the $40,000 in that fund would suffice for the coming school year.
On the discussion to eliminate the TLC stipends completely, Kunz said he felt this wasn’t an area to cut currently, and he would instead advocate to restore the cuts made to PLC stipends at the April 8 meeting.
Board member Lance Schoff concurred with Kunz.
“I keep going back to the decisions we’ve made over the past two years to PLC stipends, going from $3,000 to $1,000 and now zero, and that didn’t feel good to me as a board member when we’re looking at other larger cuts,” Schoff said. “When that recommendation was made, we were looking for money to save, and seeing we found well more than our target, I’m not in favor of cutting those stipends. I do think reducing TLC stipends by half is warranted.”
Batenhorst said the stipends for the PLC put the district on the high end of those positions to begin with. Taking them to the $1,000 put the district in line with other districts.
On elementary attrition, Batenhorst said he made the recommendation knowing the district’s history and chances for a position to be reduced. The lack of an additional teacher would impact the second grade, which would be reduced from five classes to four classes, with future class sizes of roughly 23 students in each section compared to the current 19.
Backfill on insurance
With the district hitting the target for potential cut costs for the general fund, the discussion then turned to the backfill for employees impacted by the reductions of cash stipends.
The district had 71 employees enroll in the insurance plans offered this year, which business manager Michael Marshall said will help them lock in better rates in the coming school year. That means the district’s insurance costs for the year were in the $890,000 ballpark, leaving roughly $395,000 in savings.
Kunz recommended returning that savings amount to employees impacted by the stipend program’s sunset. The savings would be distributed as bonuses to employees, to avoid impacting IPERS.
Clark said when the management committee looked at the cash stipends reduction, it highlighted the pay discrepancies in the district between teachers, hourly employees, and administrators. Clark sought to propose raises for associates’ pay, with a retention bonus for certified staff.
“With our principals and hourly staff, we have a ton of tenure in this school,” Clark said.
Other board members were amenable to a one-time payment idea, but had concerns about increasing hourly wages, which would be an ongoing cost year to year.
“We just don’t have the information of the impact to the district for those increases for the next few years,” Kragenbrink said.
Batenhorst recommended the district examine a potential salary schedule for support staff at future meetings. Clark said the district should start work on that sooner rather than later, as they could start losing tenured staff if that isn’t addressed.
Kunz recommended a $200 per month bonus for hourly employees — totaling $2,400 annually — as a retention incentive for those who stay with the district. He also proposed $1,600 stipends for certified teaching staff and $1,600 for administrators, with the administration able to determine how best to flow those bonuses out to staff.
Schoff proposed a $2,000 payment for hourly and certified staff, and $6,000 for administrators, citing that the stipend loss for administrators was much larger than their budgets overall.
Kunz said his recommendation was trying to be equitable to all staff but in different ways.
“My rationale for supporting the support staff more is giving them that ability to pay grocery bills,” Kunz said.
Schoff said while Kunz’s plan was equitable in many ways, it was still inequitable to administrators.
Kunz made a motion for his plan, which Clark seconded. Board members Tim Keegan and Schoff provided no votes for the backfill plan because of the inequity among administrators.
Next steps
With the cuts, the district has given itself time over the course of next year to review the district’s finances. There could be additional cuts and changes made with a deeper look at the budget, but according to Marshall, the proposed cuts will help stabilize the district’s unspent balance authority and help improve the solvency ratio.
The district will also likely address the pay discrepancy discovered between hourly staff and administrators as they examine the budgets closer at future meetings.
Personnel
The board also approved a new contract for former NFL center Brad Meester as the new head football coach at Mount Vernon High School, and educator Donovan Eastburn for a social studies position at Mount Vernon Middle School next year.
The board also accepted the resignation of business manager Michael Marshall. Marshal’s wife accepted a job in central Illinois, and as such, his family will relocate to that community.
Marshal will remain employed with the school through June 30, and that contract could be extended to help onboard a new person to the position of business manager if hiring was not conducted before June.
Superintendent Greg Batenhorst said the hiring decision for the new business manager will be made by incoming superintendent Matt Leeman, not himself, as Leeman will be working with that business manager moving forward. The two superintendents will work on advertising and getting that position hired as soon as possible.
Mount Vernon Schools approve additional cuts
Nathan Countryman, Editor
April 25, 2024
About the Contributor
Nathan Countryman, Editor
Nathan Countryman is the Editor of the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun.