Jump to content
Billings Public Schools Forums

Budgeting For Results Committee - July 12, 2010


Guest sullinss

Recommended Posts

Guest sullinss

School District No. 2, Yellowstone County

High School District No. 2, Yellowstone County

Billings, Montana

July 12, 2010

Call to Order

 

The Budgeting For Results Committee of School District No. 2, Yellowstone County and High School District No. 2, Yellowstone County, Montana met at Lincoln Center, 415 North 30th Street, Billings, Montana, on Monday, July 12, 2010. Committee Chair Joel Guthals called the meeting to order at 5:17 p.m. and led those assembled in the Pledge of Allegiance. Budgeting For Results Committee members present were: Joan Sleeth, Rod Gottula, Sandie Mammenga, Deana Elder, Joel Guthals, Connie Wardell, Peter Grass, and Paige Darden came at 5:32pm.

Also present were Superintendent R. Keith Beeman, Dennis Stellingwerf, Jeff Blood of Optimizon, Rob Rogers, Sondra Baker, Mike Dilley, Thomas Harper, and Kathy Aragon.

 

Chair Guthals welcomed Dr. R. Keith Beeman as new Superintendent of our District.

 

Communication from the Public

 

No one wished to address the Public

 

Consent Agenda

 

Rod Gottula moved to recommend the Board approve the Consent Agenda items as follows:

A-1 BFR Minutes of June 14, 2010

A-2 Addition of Computer Lab Support Trust Fund Account at Sandstone

Joan Sleeth seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously.

 

Bills Paid – May, 2010 (summary sheet)

 

Rod Gottula moved to recommend the Board approve the Bills Paid for May, 2010. Connie Wardell seconded the motion.

 

Thomas Harper explained the $12.7M in Payroll Warrants and Direct Deposits represented the three teacher payrolls that occur at the end of the year for the summer months. The ECI rent of $3628.25 is a monthly payment. Chair Guthals stated the bills paid details are posted on the website and also on the School Board email; and, all bills paid for the month were reviewed and authorized in accordance with District regulations and are in compliance with school, state and federal laws, policies and procedures. The motion carried unanimously.

 

Financial Reports – June, 2010 (unaudited)

 

Thomas Harper explained the fiscal year is 100% complete. Elementary General Fund expenditures are at 98.6%, and the unencumbered balance will be used to close the books. Some funds will end the year with a surplus, i.e., Tuition Fund expenditures depend on the number of students that require services at the Yellowstone Boys & Girls Ranch and the Youth Services Center; Retirement Fund expenditures are used to pay the employer’s piece of employee related taxes; the Building Reserve Fund is carryover money from the levy that expired in 2005-06 and is used as an emergency fund; and, unspent Technology Funds can be carried over to the next year. The District is in the process of creating a plan for expenditures from the H. S. Technology levy that voters approved.

The unspent Elementary Flex Funds of $187,433 and H.S. Flex Funds of $109,238 is Indian Achievement money the former Superintendent held for an Indian Achievement Center that did not come to fruition. Part of the High School budget solution was to use $50K of that money to balance the budget. At the end of FY2010-11 the carryover Flex Funds will be spent. Connie Wardell was told by MTSBA that we need to spend this money by the end of December or the State will take those funds. Thomas will monitor this and do what he can to be able to use these funds.

Thomas explained some variances in the cash funds occur because revenue for June has not been posted yet. July 20th is the formal cutoff to balance transactions in the books.

Health Insurance Financials – May, 2010 (unaudited)

Thomas reported claims paid in June are well over $1M. Revenue less expenditures as of May 31st are $680K. We will know by the end of July the amount of claims incurred but not billed and if our 6% increase in premiums will cover the claims.

Optimizon – Baseline Assessment Report

As part of a review to improve efficiencies and ways to save General Fund dollars, the copier/printer/multi-functional devices and the printing/warehouse operations were reviewed. The firm of Optimizon, Inc. was hired to conduct a baseline assessment for the District to understand current copier and printer spending and performance.

Jeff Blood, Partner/Business Development, with Optimizon, Inc. presented the Strategic Baseline Assessment Report measuring the opportunity for improvement in the document output environment in our District. Mr. Blood said there is a $500K opportunity for cost savings in our District. They guarantee a minimum 3% return on investment. Recommendations for achieving available opportunities for cost reduction were:

1. Controlling volume

2. Migrating volume to lower cost devices

3. Consolidating devices to standardize device types and make/models

4. Improving contracting processes to reduce cost through better match of equipment to needs and maximizing competition

5. Ongoing management of fleet information, vendor performance, and workflow/usage to prevent cost-creep and measure progress/achievement

 

Thomas said the next step is to enter into some type of agreement with Optimizon. Chair Guthals said it was the consensus of the Committee that this is a promising concept and encouraged Administration to refine this further and forward it to the Board.

 

New modern copiers store all images to their hard drives. Purchasing Director Mike Dilley clarified District copiers no longer in use are disassembled, and the hard drive is removed and destroyed before the copiers are disposed of.

 

Preliminary Budgets for Other Budgeted Funds FY2010-2011

 

Director of Transportation Sondra Baker explained the District had 71 bus routes in 1999. Bus routes are being increased from 82 last year to 84 this year. Increased routes are necessary to serve some elementary schools that changed their school start time to 8:00 a.m., and also to serve extreme pickup locations for special education buses. We have 35 dedicated special education bus routes, plus many special education runs on regular bus routes. Changing boundaries may not eliminate many bus routes since the majority of routes are over three miles. Other challenges to bus scheduling are school choice options, if they don’t meet AYP, and Homeless students. The law now says Homeless students can be bussed back to their home school wherever they live. First Student’s rate increase this year was 1.8%.

 

Chair Guthals asked how the Transportation budget could save 5%. Sondra replied she already added two bus routes and did not increase the budget other than the 1.8% for the First Student contract. Connie Wardell asked if special education bus routes could be contracted separately. Sondra said they could but you may not save money because there are many special education students bussed on regular routes that don’t need bus aides. Bus sizes are standard and can only hold a certain number of students; and, wheelchair requirements are also a factor. Sondra is on the City Traffic Board and is involved in safety busing. Sondra actively requests sidewalk improvements to potentially reduce busing to those areas.

 

Thomas said the Transportation Fund is a permissive levy, and he tries to balance the needs of the District with the taxpayers. The Transportation budget is funded 25% by the State, 25% by the County, with the balance levied to local taxpayers. In order to have a good safe program the District funds crosswalk guards and special education bus aides in addition to the First Student contract.

 

Thomas explained the Transportation Fund, Tuition Fund, Retirement Fund, and Adult Education Fund are permissively levied, balancing the needs of the District with the public. If the bond election passes we may need to amend the Debt Service Fund to issue payment.

 

Sandie Mammenga moved to recommend Board approval of the Other Budgeted Funds FY2010-11 as follows:

Elementary High School

Transportation Fund $ 3,474,310 $ 1,856,321

Tuition Fund 300,000 403,909

Retirement Fund 8,800,000 4,900,000

Adult Education Fund 578,440 1,500,587

Technology Fund 115,368 1,201,457

Flexibility Fund 357,433 279,238

Building Reserve Fund 301,569 394,571

Debt Service Fund 294,666 505,333

 

Deana Elder seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously.

 

General Fund budget Scenarios FY2011-2012

 

Thomas presented three different budget scenarios FY2011-2012 with different assumptions for funding from the State. The Committee discussed the importance of working with the legislators regarding the District’s financial needs.

 

Adnournment

 

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 7:55 p.m.

 

 

 

Joel Guthals, Chair

 

 

Sherrill Sullins, Recorder

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...