School financial future unclear

FORT RECOVERY — It’s a guessing game.

Fort Recovery School Board got an overview of its five-year financial forecast during a work session before its regular meeting Monday. But, the reality is that school finances are in flux amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“We will see some COVID-19 impacts going forward,” said treasurer Deanna Knapke.

Fort Recovery Local Schools is projected to finish fiscal year 2020, which ends June 30, with a budget surplus of $216,870. That would bring its year-end cash balance to more than $6.7 million.

Those numbers are despite schools statewide seeing their budgets cut by 3% in fiscal year 2020 as part of Ohio’s effort to adjust during the coronavirus pandemic. The cut cost Fort Recovery nearly $168,000.

As for what’s coming in the next few years, it’s difficult to predict. Knapke noted that she built in a 5% reduction in state funding, which accounts for about 52% of the district’s revenue. But, she noted that she’s been told state funding cuts could be anywhere between 3% and 10%.

It’s also difficult to predict how hard increased unemployment will hit income tax dollars, which accounted for 17.5% of Fort Recovery Local Schools’ funding this year. Knapke built a 10% decline into per projections, but at this point, she said that’s just a guess.

“There’s so much up in the air right now, I’m just putting my best guesses on this when I put it together,” said Knapke. “I feel like it changes every day.”

The overall picture in the forecast shows deficit spending each of the next four years, ranging from about $690,000 in both 2021 and ’22 to $1.4 million in 2024. If those numbers were to hold, that would drop the district’s cash balance to less than $3 million.

Superintendent Larry Brown told school board members Nick Wehrkamp, Greg LeFever, Anne Guggenbiller and Jake Knapke, absent Don Wendel, that he and the other administrators are starting to talk about how to limit that deficit spending.

The board also agreed to seek bids for the smaller of two options presented for a new bus maintenance/storage building at a projected total cost of about $325,000. The construction cost is estimated at $292,190, with the school to purchase $30,000 to $35,000 in plumbing fixtures and other equipment on its own in order to keep the cost down.

Plans for the building presented Monday by Minster architectural and engineering firm Garmann Miller call for a new building of about 2,200 square feet to be built to the east of the current bus barn, with the north-south alley running in between. The building would include two heated bus bays as well as a restroom.

The board chose that option instead of a nearly 5,000-square-foot structure that would have also included four unheated bus bays. It was estimated at a total cost of $515,143, which was well over the $200,000 the district initially hoped to spend on the project. That led administrators to ask Garmann Miller to offer the option of the smaller building as well.

Former superintendent Justin Firks presented the board with the possibility of building an additional bus storage/maintenance facility in February 2019, noting that the current garage does not have heat, a restroom or running water. If the project moves forward, the goal is to have it complete by the early fall.

Brown noted a variety of other projects scheduled for this summer, including replacing sprinkler heads in the elementary/middle school building and all cast iron sewer lines at the high school. The gym floor at Fort Site Fieldhouse will also be resealed. He added that much of the summer cleaning has already been completed while students were out of the buildings over the last two months.

In other business, the board:

•Recognized the Fort Recovery High School Class of 2020, which graduated Sunday in an outdoor ceremony.

•Approved the following: transferring $20,000 to the preschool tuition fund from the general fund; a one-year contract with West Central Ohio Assistive Technology Center; authorization for Brown and Knapke to enter into a three-year service agreement with Northwest Ohio Area Computer Services Cooperative; paying supplemental contracts at 100% because of the coronavirus pandemic; an FFA field trip to state camp in Carrollton; and cutting shutdown week back to June 25 through June 30, thus allowing voluntary athletics activities to begin July 1.

•Approved Michelle Stammen, Abby Scheidt, Kim Pohlman, Judy Fortener and Jill Dues as summer school teachers. The status of summer school will be dependent on state guidance. If allowed, it will not begin until July 1.

•Accepted more than $5,000 in donations, including a total of $4,000 from Cooper Family Foundation for the school activity funds.

•Heard from elementary school principal Kelli Thobe that 94 students are signed up for preschool next year with 59 signed up for kindergarten.