Board is in ‘holding pattern’

Jay School Corporation has its February enrollment count.
It expects to learn today how much funding it will receive from the state during the first half of 2016.
At its meeting Monday, Jay School Board members said those numbers, as well as others to come in the next few months, will be used to continue to evaluate building use in the corporation.
Board members also learned the corporation’s 2016 budget was approved by Indiana Department of Local Government Finance and gave business manager Brad DeRome permission to look at options for refinancing a portion of its debt.
After a report on enrollment numbers earlier in the meeting and a financial update that continues to project the corporation to be in the black in terms of general fund spending in 2016, board member Greg Wellman asked his colleagues to provide some clarity on proposals to potentially close one or more schools.
“Because I haven’t heard anything for a few months now, I would like to know at some point where we are with all the building business and consolidation. I think if I think we’re kind of just leaving it hang, probably the public thinks it’s just hanging out there,” said Wellman. “And if we’re just planning on waiting to see what happens and maybe we have enough money, then we probably ought to say … that’s our position.”
The board has discussed the possibility of closing buildings to save money because spending deficits have seen the corporation’s general fund balance cut nearly in half since 2011. Those options include closing Pennville, Judge Haynes and Westlawn elementary schools, moving all eighth graders to Jay County High School and moving all sixth and seventh graders to East Jay Middle School.
Wellman expressed doubt during January’s meeting that such moves would be necessary if the corporation has weathered its financial storm.
In response to Wellman’s comments Monday, board president Kristi Betts said she wanted to see what the enrollment count would be and how that will affect state funding.
“We’re kind of in a holding pattern right now just to get more information,” she said.
Superintendent Tim Long also noted that the kindergarten round-up is coming up in March and those numbers will give the board a better idea of where enrollment will stand in the fall following the graduation of a large class of 2016.
“In the next month, two months, we’ll have more information, better information, than we do right now, because some of that is speculation that becomes firmed up,” said Long. “We’ll continue to monitor that.”
The issue of closing and/or consolidating buildings will be placed on the March meeting agenda at Wellman’s request.
The school corporation’s February enrollment count of 3,425 is down 27 students since September and 18 students from the same time last year. The enrollment decline has been more gradual over the last four years after falling by more than 150 students from 2011 to 2012.
State funding is directly tied to enrollment, and DeRome said he expects to learn today how much the corporation will receive for January 1 through June 30. He had said in January that he projects the corporation to have a general fund budget surplus of $192,000 in 2016, and he repeated that number Monday.
Responding to that information, Jay Classroom Teachers Association president Paul Szymczak asked the board to remember teachers during negotiations this year, saying their wages have lagged during the last few years.
In his financial update, DeRome told the board that the DLGF has approved a budget of $34,986,372 for 2016, which is down $915,000 — about 2.5 percent — from the previous year. That results in a tax rate of $1.01 per $100 of assessed value, an increase of 2 cents from 2015.
Board members Beth Krieg, Cory Gundrum, Mike Shannon, Ron Laux, Tammy Bennett, Betts and Wellman also gave DeRome permission to look into the possibility of saving money by refinancing its bonds related to building projects in 2001 and ’02. That included work at every building in the corporation, with the largest chunk involving the renovation of East Jay Middle School. Lonnie and Mike Therber of Therber & Brock, Indianapolis, will evaluate the corporation’s options and DeRome will bring any possibilities to the board later this year.
In other business, the board:
•Hired coaches Jonathan Winner (East Jay Middle School wrestling), Lyndee Evans (Jay County High School assistant girls track), Kurtis Hess (JCHS boys track); approved leaves of absence for Courtney Kinstle (EJMS special education teacher) and Robert Ford (bus driver); and approved a transfer for Mary Miller from a part-time food service employee at EJMS to full-time.
Because of a clerical error, the board also approved hiring Brad Aker as the JCHS softball coach. Aker was instead supposed to be hired as assistant softball coach, with Amy Hawbaker as the head coach. The error will be fixed at the board’s next meeting.
•OK’d field trips for JCHS German students to Mad River Mountain Ski Resort in Bellefountaine, Ohio, on Jan. 23, JCHS FFA students to The Champions Center in Springfield, Ohio, on March 2, EJMS sixth graders to Chicago on May 13 and JCHS English students to Ireland, Wales and London June 12 through 22, 2017. Also approved a bus use request from Holy Trinity youth group for its Feb. 12 through 14 trip to Guerin Catholic High School.
•Accepted a Rural and Low Income School Grant of $72,923.68 with $35,923.68 to go toward educational technology and $27,000 to be spent on professional development.
•Was presented a list of goals, including becoming a Master School Board with the Indiana School Board Association, updating curriculum guides to the new state standards and providing an anti-bullying program for students in grades six through 12.
•Heard from DeRome that the school corporation received $107,521 for its State Teacher Performance Award. The result was about $415 per teacher, most of which was paid on Feb. 12.
•Granted permission 6-1 for the school corporation to participate in the federal summer lunch program over the objection of Wellman, who said it amounts to “socialism.” Over the last four years, the program has provided more than 42,000 meals.
•Learned from Long that the corporation ranks fourth in the state in terms of percentage of students who have enrolled in CollegeChoice 529 savings plans. He noted that the Jay County Promise program will focus on enrolling current fourth graders and incoming kindergarteners in 2016 in an attempt to get as many elementary school students as possible enrolled.
•Gave DeRome permission to advertise for bids to replace a fleet/snow removal 2001 Chevrolet four-wheel drive dump truck, a food service department 2004 Chevrolet cargo van and a driver’s education 2008 Chevrolet Impala. Bids are expected to be presented to the board at its March 14 meeting.
•Received a list of updates to the corporation’s wellness policy. The board will review them for approval at a future meeting.
•Heard from Bloomfield Elementary principal Ben Dues that a $5,000 donation from the school’s parent-teacher organization was used to buy 25 Chromebooks for use in classrooms.
•Learned a group of Westlawn Elementary students took part in a ceremony at the Indiana Statehouse honoring former Gov. Edgar Whitcomb, who died Feb. 4.