The Daniel Boone School District’s Finance Committee met March 30 with a full plate of speculative issues that are dependent upon student enrollment projections and balancing a budget while not decreasing the fund balance.
Committee members said enrollment projections will determine the timeline and trigger for the closure of an elementary building, whether to transfer the fifth grade class to the Middle School, and whether to implement a full-day kindergarten program in 2016-17 or furlough 11 teachers in 2015-16.
Business Manager Loren Small said the true cost of a full-day kindergarten program would be $493,000.
That includes six teachers salaries and benefits at $75,000 each, plus the cost of an additional bus at $40,000.
Small also calculated that the three elementary schools are over-staffed by eight teachers.
That trend continues next year with elementary schools over-staffed by 11 teachers.
His enrollment projections since last fall indicate that kindergarten classes have the maximum class sizes of 22 students, grades one through three with 24 students, and grades four and five with 26 students.
Board President Richard Martino said class enrollment will not exceed 22 to 26 students.
Finance Committee Chairman Andrew Basile said class sizes often decrease to 19 to 22 students by Thanksgiving.
“The district has lost 92 students since last March,” said Martino.
He told the board Feb. 23 that the district could not implement a full-day kindergarten program for 2015-16 due to time constraints.
Kindergarten registration began March 16.
Small’s “workable budget” indicates the need to furlough teachers due to the decreasing enrollment.
Restoring the full day kindergarten would eliminate the revenue savings from furloughing 11 teachers and instead add the $493,000 full-day kindergarten cost as a new expense.
High School Principal Preston N. McKnight told the board on March 26 that there are currently 36 classes of 10 students or less.
He plans to “right-size” high school classes by eliminating them – per the school’s policy, reduce study halls to one per day for all students, and consolidate math, social studies, science, and English classes from five instruction levels to three, for the 2015-16 school year.
Superintendent Marybeth Torchia said she expects to have Daniel Boone Middle School and High School enrollment projections by the April 13 Committee of the Whole meeting.
“He’s [McKnight] looking at textbook availability,” said Torchia. “We won’t have a good idea until the kids [classes] are scheduled [for 2015-16] as to where they want to be. We will have consolidation, but we’re not really losing a large number [of students].”
“Mr. McKnight was talking about getting rid of some of those inefficiencies,” said Finance Committee Chairman Andrew Basile, “and we need to understand the costs of adding AP (advanced college placement) classes, etc., textbooks, and compare that to the alternative costs of consolidation. Is that $200,000? We can buy a lot of textbooks with that.”
“What are all the variables needed, the costs, what is the timeline for this? We have three board meetings and two to three Finance Committee meetings [to discuss this],” said Basile.
He said the administration is compiling a “bare bones” budget, in addition to Small’s workable budget.
Included with the discussion of enrollment projections, furloughing teachers, and a potential building closure, board members are weighing the advantages and disadvantages of transferring the fifth grade to the Middle School.
Discussions have focused on the maturity level of fifth graders at the Middle School, the building space requirements, potential costs, and the availability of encore staff and specialists.
“The Middle School is used to capacity,” said Torchia. “We would need to take away computer labs. We couldn’t do it next year. I don’t believe we’re over-staffed at the Middle School; we furloughed four teachers last year — one in each subject.”
She said the Amity Elementary Center is also at capacity.
Basile said the administration needs to make a timeline, “and these are the factors to look at or the board must make a decision.”
Committee member Tamara D. Twardowski said a Grade 5 – 8 program can be accomplished, but she first needs to know the actual building capacities.
“Some drastic changes will have to be made,” said Basile. “A building is a building. It’s not what educates our children, and if closing a building will keep a program going — based on the population — this is the model that works best. The Methacton School District (Montgomery County) is closing two buildings. If you need to close two buildings, it’s something you should have looked at a long time ago.”
Martino said 331 new homes will soon be built in Amity Township, which will generate additional student enrollment.
Twardowski said the public impression is that the school district benefits from the property tax revenue.
“We spend $13,000 per kid,” said Twardowski, adding that many families have more than one child.
The district’s current millage rate of 28.9618 mills generates $2,896 in property taxes on properties assessed at $100,000.
A property assessed at $200,000 pays $5,792 in property taxes.
