Superintendent Anna Graham presented her recommended budget to the Madison County School Board last week.
The budget is one that focuses on employee salaries while adding needed positions for increased special education and English as a Second Language (ESL) learners.
For the past 19 years, the division has slowly lost students, from 1,921 enrolled during the 2007-2008 school year to just 1,500 enrolled in the current year. The recommended budget is based on just 1,490 students. However, while overall student enrollment continues to decline, students in both the English as a Second Language (ESL) and special education populations continue to increase. Currently, there are 46 students in the ESL population and 196 in the special education population with another 15 undergoing eligibility verifications.
To address these increased needs, the recommended budget includes two additional special education teachers, two additional aides for inclusion classes at Madison Primary School and one additional ESL teacher. The division also plans to increase its outside special education services by $59,000. These are purchased through the Piedmont Regional Education Partnership (PREP) and include occupational therapy, physical therapy, autism behavior consultation, assistive technology, parent resource center membership and vision.
The recommended budget also includes one additional kindergarten through fifth grade teacher; one additional aide at Waverly Yowell Elementary School to provide student rotation and teacher common planning; an additional aide for for the RTR Teacher Residency Program grant; and adding 10 days to the Waverly Yowell Elementary School counselor’s contract. Other recommendations include increasing instructional supplies by $5,000 per school; $15,000 to cover when high school teachers are paid to teach a class during their planning period; a $20,000 increase for utility costs and $50,000 to meet ongoing technology needs.
For extracurricular activities, $5,000 is recommended as requested by the middle school band program to repair and maintain instruments and $11,785 is recommended to create an after school Mountaineer Theater program. The mini Mountaineer Theater program for younger students has been wildly successful with students performing a play each spring. Graham said the additional funding would allow the school division to offer kindergarten through fifth grade and sixth through 12th grade programs.
Following last month’s budget worksession, $2,655 was added for a middle school wrestling coach. School board member Graham Davidson said the position was added based on the increased demand for a more robust wrestling program within the community. He said some one-time startup money might be an option as well.
“If going to start [a middle school program], start one with the right resources,” Davidson said.
As in previous years, the budget recommendations also include a raise for all staff. Initially it was 4%, but school board members asked it be increased to 5% for all teachers and staff with a 4% increase for administrators. The raise is part of the continued effort to keep the school division salaries competitive with surrounding localities and is partially offset by a 4% raise included in the governor’s budget.
The recommended budget also includes absorbing the impacts of a health insurance increase, currently estimated at 10%. That number could be lower when the actual rate is finalized later this month.
The budget includes an approximately $89,000 increase in sales tax revenue ($2.78m), an increase of approximately $924,705 in other state funding ($10.8m) and level federal funds ($947,000). The budget currently requests an additional $311,057 in local funding ($11.3m), but that number is expected to decrease, resulting in a request for level county funding.
“The hope is the [increased] county ask will be zeroed out with the health insurance rate,” director of finance Tina Cropp said. “We can adjust the raise if we need to and hope for more state funding. Most of our increases in this budget are for salary increases and fringe benefits.”
“Our goal is to request level funding from the county,” Graham added. “We’re waiting for the final budget from the state and will see how things fall.”
No one spoke during a public hearing on the recommended budget.
Davidson said one change the school board would like to see is removing an administrator position from one of the school buildings and placing that position in the central office to focus on instruction and grant writing.
Cropp said the state budget information is expected to be released Feb. 22. The school board budget is expected to be discussed with the board of supervisors Feb. 26 at 3 p.m.
