L’view board hears financial information

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The Lincolnview Local Board of Education held a moment of silence for a longtime district employee who died Tuesday morning and also talked about financial and legislative matters during its November meeting Tuesday evening.

Board President Ron Davis asked for a moment of silence to remember Monica Richey, a bus driver with the district for the past 37 years, prior to the start of the business portion of the board meeting.

Much of the meeting was taken up by Treasurer Troy Bowersock’s report and a discussion of legislative proposals being considered by the Ohio General Assembly.

While noting that it appeared that the district should have enough revenues to meet its budget for Fiscal Year 2012, he did note that those revenues were more than a half-million dollars less than last year. Last year’s budget revenues totaled approximately $8,798,000, Bowersock said, while this year’s revenues are estimated at $8,233,000.

While property taxes increased a bit — and are likely to increase further following the recent revaluation by the Ohio Department of Taxation — other revenue streams have either dried to a trickle or have stopped altogether. Bowersock noted that tangible personal property revenues, which at their peak totaled $340,000, were $136,000 this year — a decrease of more than $200,000 a year. Personal property revenues will totally dry up in the near future, leaving a revenue hole in most school districts’ budgets.

The school treasurer said there were also some uncertainties over wind turbine fees and how they will be collected and even more uncertainly over just how the defeat of State Issue 2 will affect the state biennial budget and the amount of state foundation money the district will receive.

“We don’t know how much we’re getting this year and we don’t know how much we’re getting next year,” Bowersock said of the state funding situation.

Fortunately, the treasurer noted, the district anticipated problems with funding in Governor Kasich’s first budget and took some measures to try to cut expenses. Those measures included cooperation from district staff members who took a pay freeze and also agreed to contribute more to their health insurance plans, while teachers who retired at the top of their wage scales were replaced with younger teachers who started at a lower pay scale.

Marsh Foundation has also seen an increase in revenues, Bowersock said, since it was allowed to charge the residents’ originating districts for the cost of their schooling, and that has also been a financial benefit to Lincolnview.

Another area that has been a positive for Lincolnview is open enrollment, with the district gaining substantial additional revenues the past few years from students coming into the district from other school systems. It’s also why the proposed Senate Bill 220 is a concern, said Legislative Liaison Eric Germann, since it calls for an in-depth study of the state’s open enrollment program.

It would be the first such study since open enrollment was created approximately 20 years ago as a pilot program, Germann said, noting that the program’s status has not changed in the past two decades.

According to the legislative liaison, that could change with the proposed measure, since lawmakers are asking the Ohio Department of Education to review the open enrollment system and then plan to replace it with a program based on the ODE’s findings.

One issue that could be addressed by the bill, Germann said, is whether it’s fairer to send only state foundation money with a student who open enrolls in a new district or to add a per-pupil portion of tax revenues from the district being left, as is now done.

Board members also discussed House Bill 136, which would expand the state’s school voucher program. Germann did note, though, that recent changes in the bill are more favorable to public school districts, since the income levels for those qualifying for school vouchers was lowered, lowering the number of students that would qualify, and lawmakers also deleted a saving account section of the bill.

“HB 136 is still scary and hotly contested,” Germann reported to his colleagues.

In other news, the Lincolnview board:

• Heard an update from Superintendent Doug Fries on the soccer/track complex bleacher and press box construction project, noting that the goal for completion of the project is now December 7.
• Approved a contract with Home Health Solutions to provide substitute-nurse services as needed this school year.
• Authorized a contract with Gattshall Excavating & Trucking to provide snow removal services this winter.
• Retroactively authorized an overnight trip by the Lancer cross country team and coaches to participate in the Division III regional meeting October 28-29.
• Accepted, with thanks, the following donations and grants: a $2,000 educational grant and a $1,000 VH Cooper Scholarship from the Cooper Family Foundation, within the Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund; and a McDonald’s MAC Grant of $336 through an application submitted by teacher Patti Cox.
• Hired Monica Haberkamp as a substitute teacher’s aide, cook, secretary and custodian and Dianne Foltz as a substitute cook and aide for the remainder of this school year.
• Approved a resolution to commend and praise those involved in the Drama Club’s fall play production, The Past, Present and Future.
• Authorized the establishment of a scholarship fund.
• Approved Scott Lloyd as a volunteer FFA basketball coach and Alison Hammons as an unpaid volunteer cheerleading advisor for the current school year.
• Approved the district five-year financial forecast, based on information and assumptions available on October 27.
• Authorized the following activities and dates for the current school year: Selected high school band/choir members to participate in the District III Festival Concert on January 15, 2012; Lincolnview musicians to perform during the Young Artists Recital at First United Methodist Church in Van Wert on February 12, 2012; and the Lincolnview High School Prom on May 5, 2012.
• Approved the Lincolnview Senior List for Certified Employees for the 2011-2012 school year.
• Went into executive session to discuss personnel matters, with no action contemplated afterwards.

The next meeting of the Lincolnview Local Board of Education will be at 8 p.m. Tuesday, December 20, in the district conference room. The time was moved back an hour because of a conflict with a school activity.