Drummey reports strong cash balance

By LENNY C. LEPOLA

News Assis­tant Man­ag­ing Editor

Mem­bers of the Big Wal­nut Local School Dis­trict Board of Edu­ca­tion held a meet­ing Fri­day morn­ing, June 29, in place of the reg­u­lar July board session.

Dur­ing the meet­ing, dis­trict trea­surer Feli­cia Drum­mey said that June is a good month to review where the dis­trict has been over the past 12 months, because June 30 is the end of the fis­cal year; that June is when the dis­trict can exam­ine actual rev­enue and expen­di­tures against the pre­vi­ous year’s pro­jected rev­enue and budget.

Drum­mey espe­cially noted the rev­enue dis­burse­ment tim­ing dif­fer­ences that cre­ate month-to-month rev­enue ver­sus expen­di­ture fluc­tu­a­tions, adding that the end of the fis­cal year is a great time to see how those tim­ing dif­fer­ences level out.

“Over the past year we’ve had a $332,000 dif­fer­ence,” Drum­mey said. “Out of a $26 mil­lion bud­get that’s almost dead on.”

Drum­mey did note that in a year to date review of dis­trict finances per­son­nel expen­di­tures were $513,000 higher than pro­jected. That increase, she said, was dri­ven by ben­e­fits — espe­cially health­care. She added that the per­son­nel expen­di­ture increase was par­tially off­set by a $389,000 reduc­tion in ser­vices and materials.

Drummey’s report shows FY 2012 with $26 mil­lion in expen­di­tures and $33 mil­lion in rev­enue, for an end­ing cash bal­ance of $6.5 mil­lion, the strongest cash bal­ance the dis­trict has had in at least the past 10 years.

“June is typ­i­cally a low cash bal­ance month,” Drum­mey said. “In 2009 and 2010 we had a zero cash bal­ance at the end of the fis­cal year. This is the first year of the levy cycle. Our end of year cash bal­ance will drop in June of next year and con­tinue to drop as we get near the end of the levy.”

Drum­mey said it’s wise for the dis­trict, con­sid­er­ing recent dif­fi­cult times, to put itself in a posi­tion to take care of its finan­cial oblig­a­tions dur­ing lean months.

“The Ohio Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion rec­om­mends a 60– to 90-day cash bal­ance,” Drum­mey said. “With the eco­nomic con­di­tions of the last three years most school dis­tricts are con­tent with 30 to 60 days.”

The dis­trict has to main­tain a strong cash posi­tion until cash comes in, Drum­mey said. Real estate tax dis­burse­ments only come in two times each year, income tax quarterly.

“Our bal­ance might seem like a lot, but $4.5 mil­lion only lasts 60 days,” Drum­mey said. “To the aver­age per­son that looks like a lot of cash; to us, what we have is three months cash on hand, and we will not get a real estate tax dis­burse­ment until the end of August or the first of September.”

Board mem­bers briefly dis­cussed par­ent con­cerns about how the new grade five and six Big Wal­nut Inter­me­di­ate School will be oper­ated – with an ele­men­tary school for­mat or like a mid­dle school.

“Grade Five will be more like an ele­men­tary school for­mat, grade Six will be more like mid­dle school,” said dis­trict assis­tant super­in­ten­dent Gary Bar­ber. “The tran­si­tion between ele­men­tary school and mid­dle school is going to be built into the building.”

In other busi­ness, board mem­bers approved stipends for dis­trict teach­ers who men­tor new teach­ers. Bar­ber said the men­tors have to go through state spon­sored train­ing; and larger school dis­tricts hire teach­ers full-time just to men­tor new teach­ers. Smaller school dis­tricts use a stipend or a per­cent of salary base.

“It used to be teach­ers sent in a $5 fee to get their license renewed, now even teach­ers with 25 years expe­ri­ence need to con­tinue their edu­ca­tion ver­sus just send­ing that $5 in,” said dis­trict super­in­ten­dent Steve Mazzi. “With these new teach­ers it’s even a more rig­or­ous move through get­ting their license and mov­ing forward.”

Bar­ber added that the school dis­trict is look­ing at Fed­eral Title 2 dol­lars to pay men­tors next year.

Board mem­bers also approved a motion seek­ing a waiver from the Body Mass Index Screen­ing Program.

“Body Mass Screen­ing is an unfunded man­date,” Bar­ber said. “We only have one school nurse and lim­ited phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion staff, and a large part of this is inter­ven­tion. Even if we adopted Body Mass Screen­ing fam­i­lies could opt out. We have to ask our­selves if this is part of our business.”

Board mem­bers approved the pur­chase of two school buses from Cen­ter City Inter­na­tional: one 71 pas­sen­ger diesel type C con­ven­tional bus with options for $80,222, and one hand­i­cap diesel type C con­ven­tional bus with options for $85,307.

Drum­mey noted that a five-year fore­cast from five years ago showed a bus pur­chase cycle of one bus the first year, two buses the sec­ond year and three buses the third-year, but with finan­cial dif­fi­cul­ties over the past sev­eral years the dis­trict had not main­tained the bus pur­chase cycle.

“When the guys that take care of our fleet say we need new buses, we really do,” Mazzi added. “The state used to reim­burse us; we would get three buses for every two we would buy, but not anymore.”

Bar­ber said with the district’s new three-tier bus­ing sched­ule there would be an increase in miles trav­eled per bus.

“From an expen­di­ture stand­point we’re going to save money with one less dri­ver,” Bar­ber said. “There are so many advan­tages to liv­ing in this com­mu­nity, but the one dis­ad­van­tage is the amount of square miles school buses have to travel.”

Board mem­bers also approved hir­ing Megan For­man as the Hylen Soud­ers Ele­men­tary School prin­ci­pal. For­man will replace Joe Jude, who has been with the dis­trict for the past three years.

Board mem­bers approved Trans­fers and Advances as required to bal­ance funds and close Fis­cal Year 2012. The Board fur­ther autho­rized the Trea­surer to return said advances as monies are received from other sources in Fis­cal Year 2013.

Board mem­bers approved the Final Appro­pri­a­tions and Final Amended Cer­tifi­cate of Estimated

Resources for Fis­cal 2012; and autho­rized the estab­lish­ment of Tem­po­rary Appro­pri­a­tions for Fis­cal Year 2013 in accor­dance with Sec­tion 5705.38 of the Ohio Revised Code.

Board mem­bers approved the Nego­ti­ated Agree­ment between OAPSE/AFSCME Local 4/AFL-CIO #696 and the Big Wal­nut Board of Edu­ca­tion July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2015.

Board mem­bers approved Admin­is­tra­tive I & II 260-day staff to sell vaca­tion days in excess of ten (10) and/or carry-over vaca­tion days in excess of ten (10) for vaca­tion accrued dur­ing the 2011-12 school year and to be used dur­ing the 2012–13 school year.

Board mem­bers approved a one-year lim­ited con­tract for the fol­low­ing cer­ti­fied staff for the 2012–13 school year: Jes­sica Amodio, sec­ond grade teacher, Gen­eral Rose­crans Ele­men­tary, BA step 3; Katie Keller, third grade teacher, Big Wal­nut Ele­men­tary, BA step 4; Steven Kreiner, first grade teacher, Gen­eral Rose­crans Ele­men­tary, BA step 0; Danielle LaSota, first grade teacher, Gen­eral Rose­crans Ele­men­tary, MA step 3; Sara Nagra, first grade teacher, Big Wal­nut Ele­men­tary, BA 15 step 5; and Mar­garet Pharazyn, fourth grade teacher, Gen­eral Rose­crans Ele­men­tary, MA step 0.

Board mem­bers approved a 90-day pro­ba­tion­ary con­tract for the fol­low­ing clas­si­fied staff: Bran­don Mason, sec­ond shift cus­to­dian, Gen­eral Rose­crans Elementary/Big Wal­nut Inter­me­di­ate School, step 0, salary effec­tive June 25, 2012, ben­e­fits effec­tive July 1, 2012; and Travis Dick­son, sec­ond shift cus­to­dian, Big Wal­nut Mid­dle School/Big Wal­nut Inter­me­di­ate School, step 0, effec­tive July 1, 2012.

Board mem­bers accepted the res­ig­na­tion of Ali­son Sberna, Inter­ven­tion Spe­cial­ist, Big Wal­nut High School, effec­tive at the end of the 2011-12 school year.

Board mem­bers approved a 215-day 2-year Admin­is­tra­tive Con­tract for Megan For­man, Prin­ci­pal, Hylen Soud­ers Ele­men­tary, $65,000 annual salary, effec­tive August 1, 2012.

Board mem­bers approved a $1,200 stipend for each of the fol­low­ing cer­ti­fied staff for the Sum­mer Enrich­ment Pro­gram (pay­ment from Title Funds): Shan­non Mignogno, Kim Cas­tiglione, Rina Hoge, Ash­ley Lang, Katie Cor­dle, Karen Sny­der, Ash­ley Long­shore, Mark Adams, Julie Paplaczyk, Roberto DeVito, Susan Mon­fort, Susan Stein, Heather Smith, Cathy Griffis, Erin Barr, Marie Beck and Cindy Barno.

Board mem­bers approved Kriste Mar­tin, Spe­cial Needs Edu­ca­tional Assis­tant, to pro­vide sum­mer behav­ior inter­ven­tion ser­vices for a stu­dent at $15.05, effec­tive June 11, 2012.

Board mem­bers approved the fol­low­ing cer­ti­fied staff as Home Instruc­tion Tutors, at an hourly rate of $18, for the sum­mer of 2012 and 2012–13 school year: Shan­non Mignogno, Mar­garet McNaughton, Scott Bow­den, Ash­ley Ben­nett, Jamie Sohovich, Heather Smith, Erin Barr, Lind­sey Sim­mons, Susan Miss­man, Ash­ley Lang, Dar­lene Burks and Erin Curtis.

Board mem­bers approved pay­ment to the fol­low­ing Men­tors for the 2011-12 school year:

• Entry Year Cer­ti­fied Staff Men­tors Receive $2,000 Each: Mike Ruark, Leslie Wol­ford, Keri Kotchoun­ian and Christina McDonough.

• Men­tors for Cer­ti­fied Staff with Three Years or Less Expe­ri­ence Receive $1,000 Each: Sarah Wytzka, Kari Thomas, Anne Davis and Lisa Shaw.

• Bud­dies for Cer­ti­fied Staff with Three Plus Years Expe­ri­ence Receive $350 Each: Kather­ine Graven, Michael McGann, Mark Adams, Julie Paplaczyk, Laura Wood and Erin Erjavic.

Board mem­bers approved pay­ment of $600 to each of the fol­low­ing Race to the Top teacher mem­bers of the RttT Trans­for­ma­tion Team from the RttT Fed­eral Grant: Mike Stone, Chris Law­less, Nicole Lein­we­ber, Patty Thomp­son, Sarah San­drock, Angie Stooks­bury, Mary Wolf and Geor­gia Craig.

Board mem­bers approved the fol­low­ing sup­ple­men­tal con­tract for the 2012–13 school year:

• Mid­dle School: Char­lie Brod­head, Facil­ity Manager.

• High School: Lisa Hus­ton, Assis­tant Band; Craig Porter, Band; Daisy Duhl, Color Guard; Erin Gib­bons, Drama (up to three per­for­mances only); Ben Broschart, Eng­lish Depart­ment Chair; Geor­gia Craig, For­eign Lan­guage Depart­ment Chair; Geor­gia Craig, Ger­man Club; Denise Dun­can, French Club; Tammi Jor­dan, Guid­ance Depart­ment Chair; Mike Ruark, Junior Class Advi­sor; Dora Riggs, LEO Club; Mike McDo­nough, Math Depart­ment Chair; Mike Delaney, Mock Trial; Lisa Hus­ton, Musi­cal Assis­tant Drama; Stacey O’Reilly, National Honor Soci­ety; Chris May, Per­cus­sion; Lisa Hus­ton, Per­form­ing Arts Depart­ment Chair; Nadine Adams, Sci­ence Depart­ment Chair; Matt Wallschlaeger & Linda Mar­tin, Sci­ence Fair; Lisa Hus­ton, Show Choir; Scott Elliott, Social Stud­ies Depart­ment Chair; Carol Burchett, Span­ish Club; Erin Cur­tis, Spe­cial Edu­ca­tion Depart­ment Chair; Sarah Wytzka, Senior Class Advi­sor; Alan Frank, Stage Man­ager; Angie Stooks­bury, Stu­dent Coun­cil; Lisa Danne, Voca­tional Depart­ment Chair; and Mary Mit­ton, Yearbook.

Board mem­bers approved the fol­low­ing Extended Ser­vice con­tracts for the sum­mer of 2012: Ed Kitchen, Tech­nol­ogy Sup­port (67 per­cent paid from Title Funds), 10 days; Ric Cav­ic­chia, Guid­ance Coun­selor, Big Wal­nut Mid­dle School, five days; Corry Schull, Guid­ance Coun­selor, Big Wal­nut Mid­dle School, five days; Blanda Lynam, Librar­ian, Big Wal­nut Mid­dle School, two days; and Brian Shel­ton, Dean of Stu­dents, Big Wal­nut Mid­dle School, five days.

The next reg­u­larly sched­uled Big Wal­nut Local School Dis­trict Board of Edu­ca­tion meet­ing will be held at 7 p.m., Mon­day, August 13, at the Big Wal­nut Mid­dle School Library.

Posted by Gary Henery on Jul 3 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.