School board adopts working 2019-20 budget

Posted September 18, 2019 at 8:41 am

Clinton County Board of Education held its monthly meeting Monday, September 16 with all board members present. The board voted on several items of business, including adopting the 2019-20 year working budget.

The meeting was opened with a moment of inspiration/prayer by Pastor Bobby Grant.

Superintendent Tim Parson then gave the monthly superintendent’s report. Among items in the report was the district’s attempts to bring back the LPN nursing program through Somerset Community College, partnering with area churches to provide services to individual schools, among other issues.

Following a brief financial report by Finance Director Mike Reeves, Parson then gave the attendance report for the first month of the school year.

Attendance for the month, compared to the first month a year ago, was down by .25 percent overall. However, the most troublesome part of the report is there are 59 less students enrolled in the district at this point in the school year as compared to 2018-19.

Also during the early portion of the meeting, a few local students were recognized for their achievements, and those students names and photos can be found elsewhere in this week’s edition.

After reviewing the monthly personnel report with no action being necessary, Finance Director Reeves gave the board an overview of the 2019-20 year working budget, which had been discussed at last week’s board work session.

The total amount of the budget in estimated expenses and revenue was $16,426,723, which Reeves noted about four million of that amount was “on behalf” funding meaning the actually budget total amounted to a little over $12 million.

Almost 66 percent of the budget is in salaries and there is a contingency in the general fund estimated at $500,000 or 2.62 percent of the total budget.

In the revenue category, SEEK funding from the state was $7,740,000 or 63.68 percent of the budget, down over $300,000 from last year. However, Reeves noted that the unassigned balance of $994,812 or 8.21 percent of the total revenues was up and considerably.

The board also reviewed the Food Service budget, which stood at $1,739,328, with $140,000 of that amount being in on-behalf payments, making actual revenue and expenditures around $1,600,000.00.

The unassigned balance, the portion in which the Food Service budget is in the black, was $375,755, which Reeves noted was an extremely positive number compared to just a few years ago.

The board approved the 2019-20 year budget by unanimous vote.

Following Kentucky Department of Education approval, the board voted to allow the Local Planning Committee, which last met in 2017, to reconvene and take up the issue of a district energy savings construction project, with the primary emphasis at Albany Elementary School.

The board also approved some other annual agreements, including with the sheriff’s department, to provide an SRO officer at the high school; a mental health counseling agreement with Intrust Healthcare; and an agreement between Berea College and the school board for the continuation of the GEAR-UP program.

The board then approved the annual district funding assurances, approved a school fundraiser to allow ECC students to sell Pepsi products to help purchase technology and voted to establish a Daycare Director position at the Early Childhood Center.

The daycare director position would be for eight hours a day and tentatively at 180 hours per year and, according to Superintendent Parson, was the idea of ECC Principal Sheldon Harlan.

It was noted that since some pre-school students only go a half-day at school, some parents have to pay daycare centers or others to take care of their children, but offering the service in a school setting could be beneficial to children, parents and the community.

Harlan said some teachers at the school had pushed the idea and noted the daycare service at the school would be self-sufficient and education oriented for children who may not actually be of kindergarten age yet.

It was noted there would be a lot of variables to be worked out, including issues such as licensing, costs, and insurance, something that a daycare director would be in charge of handling.

Board members agreed this would be very beneficial to students and parents alike and voted to create the position. Principal Harlan noted he hopes to have more information available on the proposed program by next month.

During public comments, Walton “Chip” Haddix presented some type written pages to the school board that he asked to be put in the board meeting minutes.

Board attorney Winter Huff told Haddix he would read the comments publicly if he wished, but Haddix declined and board chairman Kevin Marcum then declined to allow the written copy presented by Haddix be made part of the board minutes.

Pastor Grant, on behalf of the Twin Lakes Family Wellness Center, then addressed the board about possibly partnering with the schools to work with students and provide weekly certificates to those that participate so they could come to the center and also have a monthly drawing for the winner to become a Wellness Center member.

He also said the Wellness Center would like to work with the board in developing a school swim team and also offered school district employees who wished to join the center a discounted membership.

The board took Pastor Grant’s suggestions under consideration prior to adjourning the approximate 45-minute meeting.