Morris County USD 417 - USD 417 BOE Goal 1 for 2013-14

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The USD 417 Board of Education has set three primary goals to work on for the 2013-14 school year. The three goals are:

Identify opportunities to increase revenue and reallocate current resources to meet student needs and facility improvements. (Please see below for supporting documents)
Develop and implement a technology plan that enhances the educational experiences for students, facilitates teaching, and increases fiscal efficiencies.
In every aspect of our work, we will encourage and promote a positive and proactive environment for our staff, students, families, and communities.

The BOE spent several hours identifying issues that each member felt needed to be addressed this year. They then came together for an evening to narrow that list down to three specific goals. Let me spend a little time talking about each one of these so you understand the what and why for each goal.

Goal 1: Identify opportunities to increase revenue and reallocate current resources to meet student needs and facility improvements. This goal is all about studying the resources the district has available for educational needs and projecting the same into the future. It is vital that our district patrons understand our resource issues as well as how the actions of our state government are impacting USD 417. While the second part of this statement is not part of our goal, state government decisions have a significant impact on USD 417.

We are a rural community with a declining student population base. The state government, through recent legislation, has essentially frozen the base state aide per pupil for public education at $3,838. It has been at the level of funding for a couple of years. Further, the state reduced their contribution to local option budgets which directly impacted local tax levies. District enrollment has decreased the past couple of years and, while the rate in our loss of students is slowing, we will continue to see a population decline in the near future. Less students and frozen revenue means less money for our educational needs. Meanwhile, with the possible exception of teacher salaries due to teacher turnover this year, expenses continue to increase. This is a bad combination for a small school district. Throw in the concern over state revenue projections and you can see why there is little optimism for help with our revenue situation.

So, we need to be proactively looking at how our money is spent, where we might find efficiencies, and how best to utilize our shrinking resources. An action plan for this BOE goal has been established in order to provide the best information possible to the BOE so they not only understand where the district stands right now fiscally but also has a clear understanding of the opportunity cost to our students and faculty if we continue with our spending priorities.

Let me provide you with a sample of what I mean by opportunity costs. Currently our district operates a food service program which loses, on average, $72,000 per year over the past 5 years. When I make this statement, it is not meant as a reflection on anyone, it is simply fact. This is money that could be put to a different use IF we can find a solution to reduce this loss. An example of our opportunity cost is more pay for our teachers or the addition of another counselor or both.

In order to understand the why and how our money is spent, there is a lot of information our BOE needs. So, here is a generalized description of the action plan to help our BOE gain insight into the district’s fiscal resources:

We will breakdown the 2012-13 school year budget in a manner that the BOE can see how money is/was spent. We will use 2012-13 because it is the last full year from which we can pull a complete set of data. The breakout of information will include:
- A breakdown by major categories of expenses,
- Show non-discretionary and discretionary spending,
- Show spending by program and by school (as best we are able to do so),
- Show the sources of all revenue for the district.

District administrators and office staff will provide relevant research information and legal requirements so people understand both what districts have to provide and do as well as what research tells us about effectively educating children. Included here will be information concerning:

Various state and federal requirements for programs and spending;
Research on class size, early childhood education, professional development, and what high achieving schools do to be successful.
Provide a detailed study on future enrollment trends for our district,
Provide a comparative look at teacher and classified salaries,
Provide a detailed review of the district’s infrastructure so the BOE has a clear understanding of the replacement needs for items such as roofs, boilers, HVAC systems, communication systems, electrical and water systems, and anything else involving district facilities. With a capital outlay budget that generates only $287,000 of which $80,000 is spent on a bus annually and another $50,000 committed to technology, there has to be a systematic preventative maintenance and replacement plan under which the district operates.

We intend to survey recent graduates to determine their success after graduation in order that we might understand changes that need to be made to help our children and our parents to be better prepared for life after high school. Successful completion of a post secondary education is critical for ALL of our children. Yes, there will still be a place for low skill/low wage work in America. However, these opportunities are shrinking fast and what is left currently has a lot of competition for this type of work.

Sometime later this year, we will conduct a public survey in an attempt to gain some insight into what is valued the most when it comes to educating our children. We will also survey our teaching staff as a part of the overall effort to understand values in relation to how money is allocated. Results from these surveys will be summarized and shared with the BOE.

Throughout the year, I plan to report this information to our public in an effort to be transparent and to provide understanding for future decisions. The described evidence of completion for this goal is, “The USD 417 BOE will make budgetary, program, and personnel decisions which will guide the allocation of resources for student learning, pay for personnel, and long-term planning for district facility maintenance and improvements.” The set of goals and the action plan for these goals can be found on the district website.

Supporting Documents

Morris County K-12 Enrollment Projection Report (1/27/14)

Let's Look at Our Revenues (12/09/13)

2012-2013 Revenue (12/09/13)

History & Projection of Revenue (12/09/13)

Explanation of 2012-13 Expenses Narrative (1/27/14)

2012-2013 Expenses by School (1/27/14)

District Food Service Program (1/27/14)

Activities (1/27/14)

Let's Look at Enrollment Projections, 2013-14 Expeditures, and the Capital Outlay Fund (1/27/14)

Capital Oulay Revenue & Expenditure Projections 2013-19 (1/27/14)

Summary of Early Childhood Research (2/27/14)