Corporation balance goes down

A shrinking year-end cash balance for Jay Schools has school board members looking at ways to reduce spending in the year ahead.
“This will be the third year in a row” of negative cash flow for the school corporation, said board member Mike Masters, who has consistently expressed concern about the spending trend.
School corporation business manager Brad DeRome told board members Monday he now projects a general fund cash balance of about $2 million, down from about $3 million a year ago.
DeRome pointed to a $346,000 drop in the state basic grant for Jay Schools because of enrollment declines in 2012-13, another $14,000 drop in the state basic grant because of a slight enrollment decline in 2013-14, the $325,000 impact of a state funding change for full-day kindergarten and health insurance expenses running $700,000 higher than the year before.
Board members Kristi Betts and Beth Krieg joined Masters in saying the time has come to cut other spending in order to restore the year-end cash balance to a healthier level.
“We’re looking at everything,” said Betts. “Nothing’s targeted, and nothing’s exempt.”
DeRome said he’ll have final year-end numbers for the board when it meets in January.
Medical claims continue to be the biggest area of uncertainty. While November claims were the lowest of the year at $381,000, claims submitted during the first two weeks of December are already $420,000, DeRome said. Total medical claim expenses for the year totaled $6.2 million by the end of November.
On 6-0 votes, with board president Greg Wellman absent, the board approved a new curriculum guide for Jay County High School, a calendar for the 2014-15 school year and the awarding of professional growth points to teachers working on special projects.
Under new rules for the renewal of teacher licenses, professional growth points can be counted toward renewal.
The 2014-15 school calendar calls for the first student day to be Aug. 11 and the last student day to be May 21, with graduation on June 7. Christmas vacation will be Dec. 22 through Jan. 2. Spring break will be March 23 through 27.
JCHS principal Phil Ford noted that curriculum at the high school is being adjusted to reflect the state’s shift to Career and Technical Education as a new approach to vocational education. Pathways will be developed that will help career-oriented students earn dual credits or industrial certification by the time of graduation.
In other business, the board:
•Heard a report from West Jay Middle School principal Mike Crull on the fall conference of the Indiana Association of School Principals. Crull is president-elect of the organization and will be president next year.
•Learned the technology committee has visited the Bluffton and Eastern Howard school corporations and plans a visit to East Noble Schools in January. The committee is in the “piloting” phase as it prepares recommendations on a potential one-to-one technology initiative in the future, making use of devices such as electronic tablets. “We’re looking at how people are handling what is probably an inevitable change,” said committee chair Jeremy Gulley.
•Noted that Gov. Mike Pence will visit JCHS on Friday afternoon.
•Accepted a $3,820 donation from Verallia for Westlawn Elementary School and a $250 donation from First Bank of Berne for the alternative school program.
•Gave DeRome the authority to void outstanding checks more than two years old and make year-end transfers of funds as allowed by state law.
•Hired Kristine Wolford as a fourth grade teacher at Pennville Elementary School, Bill Bice as a custodian at JCHS, Kim Kesler as an instructional assistant at Westlawn, Dennis Dwiggins and Ted Habegger as driver education teachers at JCHS, Karen Shawver as an instructional assistant at Bloomfield and Pennville elementaries, Beth Mathewson as a speech and language pathologist and Richard Raines as a custodian at West Jay.
•Approved leaves of absence for custodian Teffney Lowe, food service worker Linda Castle, kindergarten teacher Erin Homan, reading teacher Jennifer Snow and kindergarten teacher Kristin Westgerdes.
•Accepted the retirement resignation of JCHS social studies teacher Jessie Mangus effective at the end of the school year.
•Accepted the resignations of instructional assistant Kelly Moser, custodian Wesley Romine and bus aide Elaine Foster.
•Approved extracurricular assignments for Nicholas Ehrhart as assistant boys’ swim coach at JCHS, Brianne Wellman as assistant girls’ track coach at JCHS, Josh Selvey as assistant baseball coach at JCHS, Cori Vormohr as middle school swim coach, Molly Sutton as assistant middle school swim coach and Eric Butcher as sixth grade boys’ basketball coach at East Jay Middle School.
•Accepted the extracurricular resignations of Tiffany Mathias as middle school swim coach and Jessie Mangus as gifted and talented coordinator.
•Approved field trips by the JCHS wrestling team and the fifth grade at Bloomfield Elementary School.

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