Rick Patrick: Greene Publishing, Inc.
The Madison County District School Board met in front of a capacity crowd in the Madison County High School (MCHS) cafeteria on Thursday, Jan. 24. At the heart of the matter and on the minds of many of those gathered was the financial situation in which the district has found itself.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Karen Pickles began the meeting by introducing Chief Financial Officer for the district, Walter Copeland. Copeland explained to those gathered that the student population has decreased over the past 10 years. According to figures provided by Copeland, the total number of students in the district in 2008-09 was 2,733 students. The number of students was 2,212 for 2017-18. The school district receives funding from the state based on the number of students in the schools. This drop in student population also brings with it a drop in funding from the state. Copeland went on to add that, since 2008, revenues from property taxes have decreased $1 million. Copeland then went on to address some of the increased expenditures faced by the school district. "On the expenditure side, every year, we have automatic steps [pay increases] in our contract with the [teacher's] union," said Copeland. "We want people to make more money. But when times are tough, it doesn't give us any 'wiggle room' to navigate through that. Last year, staff increases cost about $250,000 to the general fund. What [we're] saying is, we are not seeing increases in revenues to offset that automatic increase in expenditures every year." Copeland also explained that although student population has decreased, the district continues to pay overhead on a higher student population. "We've got a district that has 3,500 seats. We've got less than 2,100 students in the district schools."
Supt. Pickles explained that the fund balance for the district (the fund balance is like a "rainy day fund" of revenues over expenses that the school district is required to keep) is around 4.78 percent. The district has a policy of keeping a fund balance of at least five percent. If the district's fund balance drops below three percent, the district runs a risk of the state taking over the school system. When recent student population numbers were learned, it became evident that because of those lower population numbers, the school district's funding is approximately $500,000 short of projections. "There are some things we need to address," said Dr. Pickles. "We have a declining enrollment; that's not going to change. There's no industry here. We need to solidify our financial stability, or we will be bankrupt." One suggestion presented in order to try and save money was to close outlying schools and consolidate those students into other schools. That proposal was dismissed at a previous school board meeting. The next suggestion being presented was to eliminate positions from the Staffing Allocation Plan within the district.
One suggestion that brought about a great deal of comment from those gathered at the meeting was the elimination of an administrative position, the Director of Exceptional Student Education (ESE). During the public comment portion of the meeting, which took nearly the entire evening, several people came forward to express their concern over this proposed staff elimination. One person who spoke was Melissa Cherry, a staffing program specialist in the ESE department for the district. "I hope you hear what they [the School Board] are not telling you," said Cherry. "They will tell you they will shift positions around and someone else will absorb the position. The person who will be absorbing that position is already over-worked. They will tell you that other districts with similar numbers operate with a smaller ESE department. But what they are not telling y'all is that the kids are suffering and that lawsuits have increased. Graduation rates have decreased." Others made the point that funding for the ESE program at the school comes from grants specifically for that purpose and is not paid out of the general fund.
Another citizen questioned the amount of money paid for attorney's fees for the Superintendent. When asked what those fees amounted to, Copeland responded with approximately $100,000. This figure was later clarified and changed to approximately $55,000.
Another citizen, George Williams, addressed the board. "While there is blame being slung here, there and everywhere; the fact remains that all of you are responsible," said Williams. "This board has been complicit for years for not doing what was necessary to be done. There's only one person sitting on this board, Suretta Bell, who should be held harmless here. The reason being that she is a new board member here. You can't cut your way out of this. You should give back your salary."
Another position suggested to be eliminated was that of Transportation Supervisor. Several citizens questioned this decision and spoke in defense of the current Transportation Supervisor stating that he does a good job, is willing to put in long hours and deserves to retain his job. "First of all, I want to note that y'all have been challenged to ride one of our school buses and I haven't seen not one of your faces, not one morning in almost the thirteen years that I have been driving the bus," said Jennifer Fulmer, from the Transportation Department. "You have no clue what we go through. The only support that we have is Ivan Johnson. Take him away and you guys better figure out how to run the district … You don't know how to walk out that back door and come down to transportation and shake not one driver's hand, when we drive one bus with 65 plus or minus children on there, through traffic with no help, no support. And yet you guys want to cut the main person that runs us, that drives us, that builds us up. He knows 90 percent of these children in this district."
There was also concern over the way in which those staff members whose job were proposed to be eliminated were notified. Letters were sent out to those people who were being directly affected by the proposed job eliminations. The school board had not voted to approve the letters before being sent. However, there were those who claimed to have heard about the position eliminations via social media. According to some of those who had received letters, the effective date of the cuts was to have been Friday, Feb. 1.
Near the end of the nearly two and a half hour long meeting, the board decided to rescind the letters that had been sent and to hold a workshop meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 29, in order to examine other ways to cut expenses that would not result in as many staff reductions. Those employees who had been notified they were being transferred were not affected by the board's decision to rescind the termination letters. Transfers within the school district is a decision of the Superintendent. Among the suggestions mentioned were offering furlough days and the possibility of going to a four-day school week. The board members invited anyone from the community who had suggestions for cutting costs to share them with the board. Contact information for each of the school board members can be found at www.madison.k12.fl.us/school-board.