School board discusses budget, start of new school year

With the school year ready to begin this week, the Vandalia Board of Education on Tuesday dealt with budgets, school startup preparations and a variety of personnel issues in a 70-minute meeting.

As has been the case in the past several meetings, state funding concerns dominated many board discussions.

“There is a lot of uncertainty in state funding this year,” Superintendent Rich Well told the board. “Some of those funds have been restored to 90 percent of what they were (from the previously announced 50 percent level), but that still does not pay the bills.

“As a result, we’re now spending what we’ve saved the past three years. We won’t receive the first property tax installment from the county until October, so it’s pretty important to have that money saved.”

After the meeting, Well said that although he’s budgeting conservatively on state funding, he’s “anticipating some better news – especially in the transportation account.”

He noted that during the past fiscal year the district received only two of the anticipated four state payments (of $128,000 each) in the transportation account.

“Over the past few years, we’re missing three of those payments,” he said. “That makes a big difference when we’re putting together a budget. We just can’t count on the revenue from the state. Now, the only money we can count on is the local property tax money.”

About 65 percent of the district’s budget comes from the state, he said.

Well presented a tentative district budget, which will be on display at the district office for the next 30 days. The board will approve a final budget at its September meeting.

That meeting will be moved back a week – to Sept. 22 – to allow for the full 30-day period for the public to view it. The budget hearing will begin at 7 p.m., with the regular board meeting to follow.

Well said that in the tentative budget, “our expenditures are very close to the eventual budget, but our revenues are projected low – and we may have to get into our surplus to cover some items.

“All superintendents are facing the same things,” he said. “The difference now versus in past years is that we now have a surplus to help us deal with this.” Previously, the district had to borrow money to bridge those funding shortfalls.

He cited two examples. First, the pre-kindergarten mid-day bus route will be continued this year, even though no state funding is provided to offset those expenses. Second, Well said that the district would continue with its five-year plan to upgrade textbooks. This will be the third year of that project.

“The textbooks will be 100 percent district funded,” he said. “But we feel obligated to do this to provide current books for our students.”

He said that the district will spend between $130,000 and $170,000 to upgrade the textbooks.

Though the board took no formal action on the district budget on Tuesday, it did pass a budget for the Okaw Area Vocational Center. That $1.2-million budget was passed unanimously by the board. Well told the board that “Mr. (Darrell) Fesser (director of the center) feels pretty good about most of the funding.” The center begins the year with a balance of $303,000, Well said.

During his report to the board, Vandalia Junior High School Principal Rod Grimsley said that teachers at his school were ready to roll out a new schedule this fall. The major change, he said, is the addition of another language arts core class to the previous core offerings – math, science, English and social studies.

“This year, all students will get two classes of language arts,” he said. “The reason was that the state average was 96 minutes per day of language arts, and our students only had 48. With the new schedule, we’ll have 84 minutes – which is a lot closer to the state standard.”

To make room for that additional class, classes will begin 10 minutes earlier (at 8:20 a.m.), and each of the nine daily classes will be shortened to 42 minutes. Dismissal time at the end of the day remains unchanged.

“We’ve been laying the groundwork for this for the past two years,” Grimsley said. “We’ve added two new teachers and shifted some duties around so we’re covered at all grade levels. We’re still offering everything we previously offered; we just added another class. The new language arts class will include a lot of literature, a lot of reading.”

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, Well told the board that work is progressing on the construction of a lift to transport a handicapped student to the band room, which is located on the second floor at the west end of the VCHS gymnasium. That lift will cost about $75,000.

Well also said that the district would again partner with the Bond/Fayette/Effingham Regional Office of Education to continue a program that encourages student attendance. The “Miss School…Miss Out” program involves billboards, flyers and a cooperative relationship with area businesses. Each building in the district will be offering incentives to students for good attendance.

After a brief executive session, the board took the following action:

• Approved the destruction of executive session audio recordings older than 18 months, as allowed by state law.

• Approved the renewal of the district’s property, casualty and Workers’ Comp insurance.

• Approved the first reading of the Illinois State Board of Education policy updates.

• Approved the district’s agreement with Kaskaskia College for dual credit classes offered to VCHS students.

• Approved a six-month medical leave of absence for Carla Woolsey.

• Approved the employee handbook for non-exempt employees.

• Approved an updated document governing rental agreements with outside groups using school facilities.

• Approved an updated handbook governing volunteers.

• Approved Julie Kershaw as an individual student aide at VJHS.

• Approved a maternity leave for Lee Hicks, starting in late September.

• Approved Staci Otto as a volunteer cheerleader coach at VJHS.