Jay budget gets tighter

Money’s tight.
And it just got tighter.
Jay School Board members learned Monday that another change in state school funding will take a $650,000 bite out of the school corporation’s year-end cash balance.
Business manager Brad DeRome told the board the legislature has changed the school funding formula from a calendar year to a fiscal year. As a result, state reimbursement for full-time kindergarten won’t be received during calendar 2013 but will be paid out piecemeal in 2014.
“That’s going to be difficult to overcome,” said DeRome.
Jay Schools has tried to have a year-end cash balance of about $3 million, so school operations and payroll can be covered in the event of a sudden interruption in state funding.
But changes by the state have made it more and more difficult to end the year in the black.
Superintendent Tim Long noted that when the state certified the Jay Schools 2013 budget in February it included the $650,000 in full-time kindergarten reimbursement that now won’t be received until 2014.
“We sure didn’t expect the state of Indiana to shift the funding formula, particularly after they’ve certified our budget,” said Long.
“That’s a real reduction from a cash flow perspective,” said DeRome. “We wanted you to have the information as soon as we had it.”
Board member Mike Masters, who has pressed for a balanced budget and maintaining a $3 million cash balance at year-end, expressed concern about the current trend, noting that if further reductions in spending can’t be found the corporation’s cash balance will have been depleted by more than $750,000 in two years.
“And you’re not going to recoup those dollars,” he said.
But other board members cautioned against over-reacting.
“If we tried to cut half a million dollars, we’d have to cut some very worthwhile programs,” said Larry Paxson.
Long noted there are some cost savings, particularly with new options created for employee health insurance, that could help offset this latest reduction from the state.
Board president Greg Wellman aimed his criticism at the Statehouse.
“I think the people here on a local level are doing a wonderful job when the target keeps changing,” he said.
“When you get blindsided like this, you just have to wing it,” said board member Mike Shannon.
DeRome noted the two other biggest variables when it comes to closing out the school year’s finances are student enrollment figures and employee health insurance claims.
Meanwhile, the school corporation’s proposed 2014 budget received no comment during a public hearing Monday.
The 2014 budget totals $36,742,973. That number is nearly identical to that of the 2013 budget, which was up about 1.5 percent from 2012.
The budget calls for a general fund of $25,873,000, about 98 percent of which comes from the state. The remaining funds — debt service ($3,906,090), pension debt service ($981,883), capital projects ($3,400,000), transportation ($2,300,000) and bus replacement ($282,000) for a total of $10.87 million — are supported by local property taxes.
In other business, the board:
•Approved a temporary easement for the Indiana Department of Transportation during a highway construction project on Ind. 26 (East Water Street) in front of East Jay Middle School.
•Hired Danielle Jackson Newell as an instructional assistant at Judge Haynes Elementary School, Sarah Link as a technology instructional assistant at Judge Haynes and General Shanks elementaries, Keri Hines as an instructional assistant at Westlawn Elementary School, Kristy Ridgway as a food service cook at East Elementary School, Crystal Lothridge as an instructional assistant at Redkey Elementary School, Amy Eley and Ronald LeMaster as bus drivers, Landra Fraley as a part-time cook at West Jay Middle School, Ed Bennett as a part-time math teacher at Jay County High School, Randin Landon as a part-time cook at Bloomfield Elementary School, Jennifer Cassel as a crossing guard at Westlawn, Samantha Kunk as an instructional assistant at West Jay, and Heather Mayer as an instructional assistant at General Shanks.
•Approved leaves of absence for Lexie Penrod and Megan Byard.
•Approved the transfer of instructional assistant Nancy Sulfridge to Redkey.
•Accepted the resignation of Karla Munday as a cook at West Jay.
•Approved extracurricular assignments for Megan Byard as ninth grade academy team leader at JCHS, Ric VanSkyock as a guard teacher aide at JCHS, Marc Bogenschutz as assistant girls basketball coach at JCHS, Tom Leonhard as assistant boys track coach at JCHS, Cindy Wolverton as seventh grade team leader at West Jay, Irene Taylor as student council co-sponsor, honor society sponsor and pep club sponsor at West Jay, Holly Farr as girls basketball coach at Westlawn, Karley Reid as sixth grade volleyball coach at East Jay, Ryan Thomson as assistant band director at JCHS, Dana Brown as assistant cross country coach at East Jay and Sarah Ullum as cheer coach at East Jay.
•Accepted the extracurricular resignations of Chuck Bihn as ninth grade academy team leader at JCHS, Whitney Whitehair as girls basketball coach at Westlawn and Deidre Grieshop as seventh grade girls basketball coach at East Jay.
•Approved field trips by the robotics team, the JCHS choirs and the JCHS FFA.[[In-content Ad]]