Board eyeing district budget
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on July 2, 2015 1:46 PM
The Wayne County Board of Education approved a $43 million interim budget at a special called meeting Tuesday. The interim budget is intended to carry the school system through the summer months, or at least until the state budget is approved.
The General Assembly did not approve its budget by June 30, forcing the district to adopt its interim version for 2015-16, a practice that has become common in recent years.
The amount represents 25 percent of the yearlong budget, based upon last year's figures, Finance Officer Beverly Boltinhouse told the board.
The interim budget includes an estimated $29 million from the state, $5.8 million from local sources, $4.7 million in federal funding, $671,000 for capital outlay and $2.5 million for child nutrition.
Board member Dr. Dwight Cannon asked whether the board might have to come back to the table again if the state does not pass its budget.
Possibly, Mrs. Boltinhouse said.
"By October, I have to have the uniform budget. Hopefully they'll have reached an agreement and I will be able to have a full budget," she said.
Breaking from tradition, Mrs. Boltinhouse, who took over the role in July 2014, also provided the board with year-end figures, including itemized "remaining balance" for 2014-15.
One line item, the long-debated instructional supplies and materials, sparked a lengthy debate by the board.
The budgeted amount from local allotments had been $867,000. The remaining balance at fiscal year's end was $268,259.
Board member Arnold Flowers questioned that, in light of ongoing concerns about teachers not having enough paper and ink for copies.
Mrs. Boltinhouse said that not all of the funds were used from the state allotment.
"Could we not have taken some of that from one school and given it to another," Board Chairman Chris West said.
"We've got to do a better job on that," Flowers said.
West noted a similar situation with the maintenance line item, where $547,000 remained.
"Those funds will roll over just like they rolled over this year," Mrs. Boltinhouse said.
"I understand, but that money was allotted for this fiscal year," West said.
"No, actually some was rolled over from last year," Mrs. Boltinhouse said.
"What I'm saying, at the beginning of the fiscal year, that was what we had for this fiscal year. We have had maintenance issues that we hadn't addressed," West said.
Cannon chimed in, recalling a called meeting to approve emergency funding for a hot water heater at a school.
Both Flowers and West raised concerns about insufficient paper and ink and copies at several schools.
"I interviewed three teachers at Spring Creek Elementary. They told me point blank the textbooks do not teach what was on the test so they had to download things from the Internet," Flowers said.
He said the school had two (copy) machines and no ink, with alternate arrangements being made to secure copies for the students.
"This is not the way we need to be doing it," he said.
Board member Pat Burden asked whether principals were bringing the concerns to the central office and if so, if they had been denied.
"At that time, they had money in their general fund and paid for it in their general fund," Mrs. Boltinhouse said.
"Did they come to you before they spent the general fund?" Ms. Burden asked.
"They did not come to me," Mrs. Boltinhouse replied.
West said it would not be fair for schools to tap into the general fund for this purpose, since a portion of that was derived from candy sales and money raised by students and should not be used for instructional costs.
Board member Jennifer Strickland said the needs are only going to increase, as testing and assessments are on the rise.
Ms. Burden suggested that teachers need to inform their principals, with principals in turn passing on the request to the central office.
West maintained that June 30 was too late to find out that there was a surplus of funds.
"If we have zero needs or had zero needs, that's OK if that money was sitting there," he said. "But we should not have money sitting in there for teachers to educate kids in the classroom. Almost $300,000 sitting there and they're out scrounging to get paper."
Then-interim superintendent Dr. Sandra McCullen said one issue may be the deadline for March purchase orders. She said she and Mrs. Boltinhouse had discussed the possibility of looking at that more closely.
"But we have had the needs since March 1," West said.
Flowers said he did not recall seeing the end of the year figures.
"You're bringing information that really we have not been privy to in the past," he said.
Cannon asked the finance officer about the change in practice.
"Are you saying that you're disclosing things that we were not aware of?" he said.
Mrs. Boltinhouse said that to her knowledge, in years past the board had not been given a budget with the close-out figures.
Flowers said he appreciated her providing the information and in the future would like even more detail and clarification.