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Molalla River School District
Board of Education — Minutes
Worksession
April 15, 2003
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Board
members present:
Mary Beyer, Karyn Gibbons, Ralph Gierke, Steve Kraxberger,
Vice
Chair Deneen Munson called the meeting of the Molalla River School District
Board of
Education to order at 7:05 p.m. and established that a quorum was present.
Public Comment
Pam Thomas, teacher at Maple Grove, stated that the site
council had been given the task of recommending budget reductions for the four
tiers. She asked the Budget Committee to look at the unique situation of Maple
Grove before cutting teachers there. She stated that the students could benefit
more from keeping the third teacher and cutting the part time administrator. A
senior teacher could be put in charge of the site. She also suggested extending
the boundaries for Maple Grove to the beginning of Sawtell Road. That would
bring approximately 21 more students to Maple Grove. The committee was asked to
look at all K-5 boundaries.
Greg
Kroeplin, Maple Grove parent, thanked the staff for all they do for kids. He
stated that the
Board should look at each school individually as they begin the budget process
as they
all have different needs.
Discussion
Dr. Ericksen provided
the Board with several handouts. It was her recommendation at this point to
build the 2003-04 budget based on the state's figures of $4.589 billion
for all K-12 schools. This would mean the SSF formula for Molalla River School
District would be approximately $16,549,458 and combined with other revenue
sources would bring our total revenue up to approximately $17.2 million.
Senator
Roger Beyer stated that he believes that the budget for K-12 school funding
falls within the $4.6 - $4.8
billion range. The governor has asked for salary freezes for all
state government employees including school district employees. He also stated
that K-5 boundary changes will not be pleasant, but it is the right thing to do
to manage the school population.
Vice
Chair Munson asked Dave Peterson to explain frontloading. Mr. Peterson stated
that the biennium distribution would be 50.564% of 2003-04 and 49.436% for
2004-05.
Senator
Beyer was asked why the state was considering the option of frontloading and he
stated that it is the hope that the economy will rebound and the legislature
come back into special session and add more funding for the 2004-05 school year.
Mr.
Gierke announced to the audience that no decisions have been made at this point
as to the
reductions for next year. This is the first time the Budget Committee has had
the opportunity to begin discussion on the recommendations that have been made
from the 21st Century Leadership Team.
1-2
Molalla
River School District
Board of Education — Minutes
Worksession
April 15, 2003
Kathy
Nickoloff spoke for the administrators and the 21st Century
Leadership Team and asked that the committee look at the Out of the Box
recommendations before making any drastic cuts.
Committee
members asked for the following information:
1. What is the debt load coming
out of the general fund (Dave Peterson)
2. Can we remove athletics from
central services and move into the high school budget (Dr. Ericksen stated that
we can do this)
3. What does it cost for per night
for athletics when all teams are playing (Cari Lucey)
4. What is the percent paid to
PERS including the bond payment (Dave Peterson)
5. Would like dollar amounts next
to all out of the box suggestions (Dr. Ericksen/Dave Peterson)
6. Suggested that we get appraisals on Schuebel property, Buckner Creek
property,
timber on Buckner Creek Property
7. Would like to look at the individual elementary schools site budget
reductions for the
various tiers
Dr.
Ericksen explained that the proposed budget is built on a salary freeze. For
step increases the additional cost would be $220,000. For every percent increase
in salary the budget would increase approximately $117,000. There are no benefit
increased included in the proposed budget information.
Dr.
Ericksen stated that is was the administration's hope to get direction from the
committee tonight as to which amount to use so that we can put together the
proposed budget.
It was the
consensus of the committee to build the budget with tier I - $4.589 billion for
all K-12 schools. It was also decided to increase the contingency by 2-Vi°/o
to bring it up to $412,736.
Mr.
Thomas asked that we look at paying down our general fund debt with some of the
extra money received this year.
Mr.
Needham suggested we look at centralizing our long distance phone plans.
The meeting adjourned at 9:00 p.m.
Chair
Superintendent
Secretary
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