THE ANSON COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS convened for a recessed meeting on Tuesday, April 30, 2002 at 6:00 p.m. at Grace Senior Center.
Commissioners present:Chairman Hildreth
Steve Lear
Michael Livingston
Dr. Jim Sims
Bill Thacker
Staff members present:Chris Wease, County Manager
Bonnie M. Huntley, CMC, Clerk to the Board
James Bennett, Human Resource/Asst. Co. Mgr.
Dorothy Tyson, Finance Officer
Rita James Data Processing
After a delicious meal prepared by Russell Sikes and Richard Melton, Chairman Hildreth called the recessed meeting to Order, welcoming those present. Also in attendance were members of the Board of Education: Nat White, Richard Johnson, Mrs. Asa Bell, Lanny Allen, Clayton Bennett, Dr. Altheria Patton, Bernice Bennett and Lisa Davis. Also present were Dr. George Truman, Superintendent, Frances Ann Williamson, and Mr. Maxter Allen, Assistant Superintendents and Harriet Usrey, Clerk.
Chairman Hildreth noted one item of business to handle before hearing from Dr. Truman. Chairman Hildreth referred to the Board of E&R where Jimmy Crider, Theodore Carr and Herman Little were appointed in November 2000. Members of this Board can only receive a one year appointment and cannot serve over six terms. The Assessor has received the resignation of two members and has submitted the following names to fill the two vacancies and she would like to add two alternates: Bobby McCollum (Burnsville); Helen Rorie (Wadesboro); Anne Covington (Wadesboro) and James Kennedy. The two alternates are there in case of conflict or someone can’t attend a meeting the alternate can serve in their place and allow the meetings to move forward. Chairman Hildreth suggested the Commissioners appoint the first two names to the Board with the next two serving as alternates. Motion by Commissioner Thacker, seconded by Commissioner Livingston, to approve the proposal. Motion carried unanimously.
Nat White, Board of Education Chairman, called their meeting to Order, thanking the Commissioners for the opportunity to meet with them.
At this time. Dr. George Truman, School Superintendent, thanked the Commissioners for hosting this opportunity to meet and talk about things facing our county and school system and to listen and consider one another’s concerns. Tonight he will give a formal presentation of his budget message, noting that a copy of his best projection budget has been presented to the County Manager. Dr. Truman presented the following message:
SUPERINTENDENT’S ANNUAL BUDGET MESSAGE
FOR 2002-2003
Last year’s Budget Message alluded to the many constraints that faced education in Anson County. Unfortunately, the state budget crisis that is being forced onto local government will again severely impact our county. Along with the local difficulties, Anson County Schools has been instructed to expect additional cuts in state support for education while expectations for increasing levels of student achievement and continuation of unfunded federal and state mandates go unchecked. Combined, these certainly create troubling times for our school system. Given these anticipated reductions in state funding, Anson County Schools must continue to depend on the cooperation and supportive attitude of our county commissioners as budgetary preparations are made for next year.
In spite of forecast for reduced state funding, the goal for Anson County Schools is high quality, high achieving schools. The supportive response of the County Commissioners to our desires to provide a high quality educational opportunity for the children of Anson County reaffirms our belief that together we can find ways to achieve that lofty goal. This year’s proposed budget message outlines a survival budget with no substantial expansions. Yet, the school system and the commissioners recognize that by not moving forward, we are in actuality falling behind in our educational initiatives.
This budget message addresses the three major budget areas: (a) New Items in Current Expense, (b) On-going Current Expense, and (c) Capital Outlay.
A.New Items in Current Expense
Grant funding is the avenue through which most discretionary funding (federal, state, and industry-based) is made available to schools. While the system recognizes that we cannot currently afford a full-time grant writer, we are asking for $10,000 to be used to contract grant writing for the schools. Most assuredly, this investment will return to us ten-fold. Without these funds, the school system cannot adequately access the funding that is available through out-of-county grant sources.
Also, our schools need at least $10,000 of local staff development funds to be used with our Initially Licensed and Lateral Entry Teachers. One of our major federal grants for that purpose expired; and at present, our system has not been able to replace those funds from other grant sources. It is certain, state funding for staff development will be cut not expanded. However, the teachers needing the staff development are the least experienced personnel in the system. They need continual support with learning the multitude of skills necessary to be a highly efficient classroom teacher.
However, if a more favorable funding environment should come about, we would ask for (1) increased funding for teacher supplements. Anson County is regularly competing with neighboring counties to attract, recruit, and retain high quality teachers and administrators for our system. Many of our neighbors offer signing bonuses and very attractive supplements. Our county needs to increase its local supplement to make it more attractive and in keeping with our neighbors. It is proposed that Anson County Schools increase the local supplement from 1.5% to 2%. This increase will cost the county approximately $65,000.
(2) Should funding become available, the school system asks for funding for a full-time grant writer at a cost of $45,000 - $55,000. As previously stated, counties without adequate numbers of well-trained grant writers are at a serious disadvantage to their neighbors with those assets.
If funding should permit, (3) Anson County Schools would like to start an AVID Program with two counselor/teachers at Anson High School. This program would help us keep our youth focused and on-track during this high-risk time in their careers. Further, we would like to expand the distance learning capabilities (technology based) and hire local teachers to expand the Advanced Placement and Honors Programs for our system.
At the middle and elementary levels, (4) Anson County Schools needs funding for local teachers and funding for programs to accelerate our children’s rates of learning in reading and math. In addition, we would like to expand our involvement in music and art, athletics (especially soccer), and increase programs for tutorial and enrichment assistance.
And, if funding should become available, our system must expand its technical support for technology. In order to maintain administrative and clerical efficiency as well as to expand instructional programs, Anson County Schools needs funding for additional positions for technology support, funding for updated equipment and funding for software upgrades. This need is critical, and continued postponement of these upgrades could become extremely detrimental to our system.
B.On-going Current Expense
On-going Current Expense is the major contributor to the necessary increases in funding for next year. With the conservation efforts of our teachers and administrators, Anson County Schools used less fuel oil, less electricity, and purchased less maintenance supplies this year than last year. However, with the unit cost of these necessities soaring beyond our conservation efforts, additional funding is required. As a result, Anson County Schools will need a projected $194,440 more primarily to fund electricity cost, fuel cost, and some additional water consumption. Dr. Truman noted that this does represent the $50,000 reduction in the rate of increase that we had from last year so their energy conservation efforts are valued at $50,000.
The cost for mandated employee benefits continues to rise. The counties matching cost for projected benefit increases represent about 20% of the requested $267,923 needed for next school year.
C.Capital Outlay
The roof on D-Building at Anson High School must be replaced. The quoted costs for replacing this roof is $77,500.
Of the two boilers that heat Anson High School, one is extremely unreliable and should be retrofitted, if possible, or replaced. Both are inefficient, and the cost for boiler replacement is $40,000.
We need to purchase a utility van for the maintenance department. The van is needed to protect sensitive electrical equipment as it is transported from school to school. The anticipated cost of the van is $20,000.
This budget proposal represents a minimum of the needs for Anson County Schools. Clearly, it does not address all of the needs of our school system and offers little in expansion of academic programs for our children. But it is an attempt to provide our County Commissioners with a realistic insight into the monetary needs of the school system. The mission of Anson County Schools is to maximize the potential of every student in the school system. Our schools need the personnel, resources, and fiscal support to make that mission happen.
Dr. Truman noted in the additional funding requests, there are no substantial program expansions as 70% is simply operation and plant maintenance cost. He has projected a 4% increase in employee benefits and no salary increases which represents 20% of their request. Last year the schools made a commitment to seek as many alternative sources of funding as possible. During the 2001/2002 school year, Anson County wrote a school renovation grant asking for $500,000 to replace the roof and the boiler discussed in the budget message. They hope to hear from this Grant around the middle of May. They are also inviting folks to the schools to look at the infrastructure, the equipment and the facility and tell them ways to operate more efficiently. They are hopefully they will be able to do some energy retrofits by changing lighting and equipment to modify peak loads and reduce electricity cost. The savings can be used to pay for the facility upgrades that would normally be capital improvement upgrades. They have also done the same thing with the phone system. He praised principals for their conservation efforts using significantly less fuel oil, electricity and maintenance supplies. Dr. Truman voiced that they have received a donation of $35,000 to be used to upgrade athletic facilities at the high school. They have also received promises of support from various other agencies for volunteer work. They have also instituted a preventive maintenance plan. They are experiencing a severe teacher shortage and have little hope of expanding the supplement so they have put together an incentive package to promote Anson County. Dr. Truman invited the Commissioners to visit their website and gave each Commissioner a handout with the web address and information on the schools. Dr. Truman also spoke on the New Century Scholars program for 7th graders which, if for the next five years they keep an A or B average, do not drop below 95% attendance with no long term suspensions, stay involved in school activities and stay drug and alcohol free, four semesters of college at SPCC will be available for them. They hope to be able at some time to add two years at UNC-Pembroke to the deal. Through local support, they received funding for a half-time position to help students receive scholarships. Through At Risk Funding, they hired a half-time position at the high school to teach students how to do better on their SAT. They have also received $13,500 for job ready summer camp to continue to offer job ready programs for sixth and eighth graders. Dr. Truman noted that through the efforts of Frances Ann Williamson, they received funding through a local source to offer accelerated math at Wadesboro Elementary which is an experimental program. Dr. Truman stated that Frances Ann manages $530,827 in instructional programs, $264,620 in new instructional grants from last year and she also manages $8,500 in local grants. They have applications for $725,000 in new grants as well as $329,836 in grant continuation and renewals. One grant that Ms. Williamson wrote through the Southeast Regional Education Consortium is for $5,000 and will be used for a summer leadership training session for administrators, principals, assistant principals and some county offices to be jointly trained with the same from Richmond County. Dr. Truman stated the budget presented is a survival budget only with no wiggle room.
Commissioner Sims commented that he is proud and appreciative of the savings and efforts and various innovative programs and new monies that have been found. His question was is there enough money to pay the bond payment and the $70,000 for the new roof with Dorothy Tyson answering there was a possibility.
Commissioner Thacker stated that he has mentioned in budget meetings that he keeps hearing that we don’t have a trained workforce in the county and realizes that some students get through the system without the necessary skills. He asked if there was anyway to start a reading program in the twelfth grade for those that got through the holes. He asked if there was some way the Commissioners could assist the Board of Education to set in place some type reading program to make sure that all graduates can at least read on a certain level. Commissioner Thacker feels the problem may be in the fact that the students can’t read the application and therefore can’t answer the questions. Dr. Patton agreed that funding to help seniors in that last year would be well spent or perhaps a year in a developmental reading/English class would be best spent before going to a regular English class. The comment was made that it is hard to get through to students that are worried where they will sleep at night and if something could be done about home life, their school life may improve.
Commissioner Lear stated that it seems the retention rate for local teachers is pretty high while out-of-state teachers is not and would like to find some way to identify the good bright students in the school system and to offer some sort of incentive for them to come back and teach in our schools. Commissioner Thacker concurred with this idea and wondered if there was some way these two Boards could offer a scholarship to graduates that would sign to return and teach in our system. He felt that maybe between the Commissioners and SPCC they could receive the first two years here and then maybe transfer to Pembroke. Dr. Truman noted he would look into this and get back with the Commissioners. Chairman Hildreth thought maybe a portion could be a student loan personalized for Anson County.
Commissioner Sims voiced his pleasure with the relationship between the Board of Education and the Commissioners. He feels this is the best he has seen and feels the Board of Education has shown they want to be responsible and work with the Commissioners to make the money go as far as it can go.
County Manager Wease felt it was all about expectation and showing these folks that you expect them to perform at a certain level. You set up objectives and goals for them and get them working towards these and show them how they can be successful by letting them succeed in increments. Each year the Board of Commissioners set goals and objectives and education has always been among the top three. He feels the Commissioners will muster within the resources available as much financial assistance as possible to the Board of Education to solves these problems. There is no magic wand to solves these problems, it takes Churches, parents, teachers, administrators, facilities and money to do most of the things needed. County Manager Wease noted a number of challenges facing the county this year. The recent annexation by the Town of Wadesboro removed $250,000 from county revenue. Interest income has been a challenge this year and will continue to be so next year. Reimbursements are the biggest unknown for the coming budget year. The State budget crises has been resolved by withholding reimbursements which totals $336,000. Everyone in government understands that because of State problems again this year, we will have to find ways to cut spending. Reimbursements as a whole for the county is $822,000 and he feels there is 1.1 million dollars that we may not see next year. One penny on our tax rate generates about $80,000. Medicaid is another big challenge and about twenty-one pennies on the tax rate will go for Medicaid. County Manager Wease feels that if the county had another two cent sales tax, it might generate a million dollars and would save property tax dollars. The Commissioners have directed him to move toward adopting a one-half cent local option sales tax. County Manager Wease agreed that both Boards are working well together and he thanked the Board of Education for the flexibility they gave the Commissioners to solve their local budget problem in this fiscal year.
After much discussion, both Boards agreed it has been a very informative and profitable meeting.
Being no further business, the meeting adjourned.
Respectfully submitted:
Bonnie M. Huntley, CMC
Clerk to the Board
Meeting time: 2.5 hours