School board adds back $2.2 million to budget

The last items school board members cut from their general fund in April were the first items they added back on Tuesday night.

Board members voted 5-0, with members Karen Chessell and Sharla Hales absent, to reinstate two gifted and talented teachers, two certified middle school librarians as well as restore field trip funding.

The vote also reversed reductions in counselor contract days and work hours for support classified staff. A teaching position at Jacobsen High School at China Spring Youth Camp was not reinstated, but additional work days were added to the contracts of the three remaining teachers.

However, the six items only made up a portion of the roughly $2.2 million in add-back money available to the school district. The funds became available after legislators approved a state budget in late spring that restored many items cut in Gov. Jim Gibbons' proposed budget.

Throughout the state's fiscal crisis, school officials and board members held a conservative line, cutting roughly $3 million out of their 2009-10 budget before knowing the state's final numbers.

In February, they cut about $2.6 million in the form of personnel reductions and nonemployee items. In April, to bolster their general fund's ending fund balance, they cut another $500,000 by eliminating two gifted and talented teachers, two middle school librarians and a teacher at Jacobsen High, among other things.

The $2.2 million in add-backs was no doubt good news; however, there was debate about where the money should go.

Superintendent Carol Lark recommended restoring one gifted and talented teacher and adding another $50,000 to research alternative models and restructure the program. After April's cuts, only two gifted and talented teachers were left in the district.

"It's the most under-served population in Douglas County," Lark said. "We can add another position for the interim until we can research and find a new model."

Board members agreed that $50,000 in research funding be provided, but insisted another teacher be added, to restore the program to its original level.

"We made a very strong commitment to GT, and, at the least, we can put it back as it was," said board Vice President Tom Moore.

However, money for the fourth position must now come from another area. The board suggested reducing pay for substitute teachers from $104 a day to $99 a day.

Originally, sub pay had been cut down to $94 dollars a day, but Lark put the original pay rate on the add-back list citing the district's need to stay competitive with surrounding counties.

Another source of revenue may come from bond proceeds - an estimated $70,000 left over from current bond projects. The continuation bond passed by voters in November allows any extra money to be rolled over into a pay-as-you-go account, but the money must be used for capital-related items, such as maintenance emergency funds.

Board members voted to use about half the add-back money for new district initiatives. The general fund's ending fund balance will be bumped up another half-percent to 4.5 percent, though that number may be reduced to 4.4 percent if funding for the gifted and talented program can't be found in other areas.

"Based on what's happened this year, we'd like to increase the ending fund balance another half-percent," said Lark. "We really dug into it last year, and we may need it to save jobs."

Board members also approved $200,000 for an outside consultant to develop a long-term facilities master plan. Bond rollover money may help fund that project.

Another $25,000 was allocated for the district's new random drug-testing program.

"I don't want people from the high school to have to go out and raise funds for a program you and I support," Lark told board members.

Also restored were several positions cut during February's meeting, including three elementary school computer technicians, a library aide at the high school and an instructional aide for the district's alternative education program, ASPIRE.