JCTA calls for cooperation

Let’s work together.
That was the message Monday from Jay Classroom Teachers Association to the Jay School Board.
“We really believe that our goal should be fiscal responsibility without a disruption of the educational process,” JCTA member David Golden told the board. “We’re willing to be a very active part of that process.”
Calling the recent Jay Schools-JCTA contract dispute “a thing of the past,” Golden said teachers realize unless the school corporation can balance its budget layoffs will occur.
And he acknowledged health insurance costs, which rose by $800,000 last year, have to be brought under control.
“I don’t know what the answer is (to health insurance expenses),” said Golden, “but I know we have to find out what it is.”
Board members welcomed the opportunity to move forward.
“It’s a great idea to come together to work on these issues,” said superintendent Tim Long. “It is a ‘we’ thing.”
School corporation business manager Brad DeRome reported Jay Schools ended 2013 with a general fund cash balance of $2,008,506. That’s down $854,000 from a year earlier.
“Our goal was to maintain $3 million,” said DeRome.
Board members have routinely expressed a desire to maintain a year-end cash balance of $3 million in order to handle any emergency or a disruption in the flow of state funds.
DeRome also told the board the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance has certified the 2014 budget, reducing it by more than $1 million from the amount that had been advertised and approved by the school board.
The state-approved budget calls for general fund expenditures of $25,012,992, debt service of $3,906,090, capital projects totaling $3,267,097, transportation expenditures of $2,300,000, a bus replacement fund of $1,799 and pension debt service of $981,883 for a total of $35,469,861.
DeRome noted that no bus replacements are planned in 2014.
The approved budget translates into a total schools tax rate of $1.1282 per $100 of assessed valuation.
That’s down from $1.1593 in 2013.
The board scheduled a work session focused on financial issues for 5 to 7 p.m. on Feb. 18.
Board members unanimously approved an updated high school curriculum aimed at realigning vocational courses to make them more relevant to local employment opportunities.
Jay Schools will be partnering with John Jay Center for Learning and local industries to offer an advanced manufacturing course on a dual-credit basis for juniors and seniors.
The course, which is still taking shape and will involve input from local manufacturers, will involve computer lab work, hands-on projects and internships.
In other business, the board:
•Accepted the extracurricular resignation of Barry Weaver as boys’ tennis coach at Jay County High School.
•Hired Kristin Selvey as a part-time instructional assistant at Westlawn Elementary School.
•Accepted the resignation of Deonna Ramseyer as a math teacher at JCHS.
•Approved extracurricular assignments for Sarah Wenk as sixth grade girls’ basketball coach at East Jay Middle School, Kyle Bischoff as assistant baseball coach at JCHS and Skyler Finnerty as assistant wrestling coach at West Jay Middle School.
•Authorized field trips by the JCHS and East Jay wrestling teams, the robotics team, FFA, Spanish language students, Bloomfield Elementary School second graders and East Jay seventh grade students.
•Noted that a group of 20 to 25 professors from Afghanistan will visit JCHS on Friday.
•Approved a broad variety of policies to bring them into compliance with changes in state law.
•Learned Cynthia Hiatt, a doctoral student at Ball State University who is interning at Jay Schools, will present a convocation at JCHS on cultural diversity issues.[[In-content Ad]]