Business Committee Feb. 06, 2006

[Guest sullinss]

Proceedings of the Business Committee

School District No. 2, Yellowstone County

High School District No. 2, Yellowstone County

Billings, Montana

 

February 06, 2006

Call to Order

 

The Business Committee meeting of School District No. 2, Yellowstone County and High School District No. 2, Yellowstone County, Montana was held at Lincoln Center, 415 North 30th Street, Billings, Montana, on Monday, February 06, 2006. Chair K. Dale Getz called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. and led those assembled in the Pledge of Allegiance. Committee members present were K. Dale Getz, Joan Sleeth, Randy durr, Jerry Hansen, Curt Prchal, Joel Guthals, Peter grass, Katharin Kelker, and Tim Cranston. Members excused from the meeting were Shanna Henry and Kari Altenburg. Also attending was Business Manager Thomas Harper and Matt Brosovich.

 

Communication From the Public

 

No one wished to address the Committee.

 

Consent Agenda

 

Joel Guthals moved to recommend Board approval of Consent Agenda Items as follows:

1. Minutes of January 09, 2005

2. Addition of Peer Mediation ECA Account at Lewis & Clark

Katharin Kelker seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously.

 

Application for Business Committee Membership

 

An application for Business Committee membership has been received from community member Jerome Chvilicek.

 

Joel Guthals moved to recommend Board approval of Jerome Chvilicek as a community member to the Business Committee. Jerry Hansen seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously.

 

High School Bond – Architect Selection

 

Rich Whitney reported the Selection Committee of Dale Getz, Dave Williams, Matt Brosovich, Randy Hafer and Richard Whitney reviewed proposals from seven firms. They narrowed them down to three and then to a firm of choice which was 3D International. Before they made a recommendation they checked five references. Information from the reference check at Durango, CO indicated 3D International oversaw the actual execution of their $84.5M bond issue covering their high schools, middle schools and elementary schools and the project was completed on time and $1.8M under budget. They also left them with a software maintenance database. All positive feedback was received about this company. The Phoenix, AZ office would support our project. They have worked with many large schools districts and have completed needs assessments with a high level of detail.

 

Katharin Kelker believes our original scope of work document needs to be narrowed down and be more specific to what the Board sees as its focus for the school remodeling scenarios.

 

Rich Whitney said he presented this item for information only because we will recommend hiring after we have the approved scope of work and know what the fee is going to be. Rich needs that template from the Board so he can present it to 3D International to begin that process.

 

Matt Brosovich believes it would be valuable to do a needs analysis in conjunction with the scope of work. He believes it would assist in setting priorities and help narrow down the work the bond will cover. Katharin said the previous scenarios based on work needed are a few years old and need to be updated. Jerry believes a needs analysis should be done on the elementary schools as well. Rich said he knows what the big ticket immediate issues are, but the advantage of a level of detail is that nothing gets left out. Kathy related the Board has only approved the high school items. Tim Cranston brought up the need for a plan for student transition during project execution.

 

Dale said the Board needs to finalize the scenarios so 3D International has something to work from; therefore, there is no action required from the Committee at this time.

 

Additional Elementary FTE

 

The Business Committee was asked to approve the hire of a .5 FTE teacher until the end of the year only for a high needs student in the Delta Program. Kathy Olson’s letter said there was no FTE allocation in the special education Part B or General Fund money. There is .133 FTE still not allocated in the general education teacher K-6 salary. Curt Prchal said his analysis shows two people unassigned (positions left unfilled but money encumbered) in the elementary certified line items. Jerry will not support this until he knows if they looked at our entire scheduling of resources before hiring new staff.

 

Kathy Olson, Executive Director of Elementary Education, joined the meeting to answer questions. Kathy said we need to hire a certified person to work with this student because his needs are such that using a para-pro would not be a good decision. The student has very significant needs and is labor intensive but he is making progress. The certified sub that was hired has worked over 30 days, so we either need to start over with a new sub or offer this person a half-time contract for the rest of the school year. The current teacher is doing an excellent job and the student may work up to half days. The parents refuse Yellowstone Treatment Center as an option, and we feel we need to continue with the services. He is also receiving homebound services.

 

Joel Guthals moved to recommend the Board approve funding of .5 FTE subject to confirmation from the Business Manager that we have funding for this position. Katharin Kelker seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously.

 

Health Insurance – Financial Statements – December, 2005

 

The Balance Sheet and Statement of Revenue & Expenditures for December, 2005 is prepared by the Business office and is presented for review and information only. Dale noted our reserves continue to increase. Curt believes we are headed toward a good financial footing and it is in our best interest to keep our current plan for coverage and cost.

 

Bills Paid – January, 2006

 

Katharin Kelker moved to recommend Board approval of the bills paid for January, 2006 as presented. Peter Grass seconded the motion.

 

Jerry will not support this motion because he objects to the Flexibility Fund being used for bus expenditures. There were two warrants issued to Ryder Student Transportation totaling $20K from the Flexibility Fund. Thomas will check into this because he believes it may be a misclassification.

 

Voting in favor of the motion were Dale Getz, Joan Sleeth, Randy Durr, Curt Prchal, Peter Grass, Katharin Kelker, and Tim Cranston. Voting against the motion were Jerry Hansen and Joel Guthals. The motion carried.

 

Financial Reports – January, 2006 (Unaudited)

 

The Committee reviewed the unaudited Financial Reports for January, 2006.

 

Update on Outcomes-Based Budget Process

 

Dale reported participants at the February 1st meeting on the Outcomes-Based Budget Process concluded that the new process would probably be accomplished in steps over a two-year period. Dale sensed buy-in and excitement by participants to talk to the community about this process.

 

Curt believes going out and informing and listening to the public is important along with following through on information collected. Dovetailing Budget Year 2006-07 with the new process through communication and accountability will provide input for the next year’s budget.

 

Tim Cranston commended participants in getting this process started. He stressed the importance of listening to the public and utilizing Communications Director Nancy Hines to provide the right tool kit to introduce the process correctly to the public. We need to get key performance indicators to see what the public is looking for and respond to that need.

 

Katharin believes how to marry output from results indicators to the budget will be difficult. She recommends the Board continue a hiring freeze and use the Business Committee as a clearing house for recommended new hires. We still need to deal with one-time only money which must be spent on specific costs with new costs not paid for by new money. The Board needs to look at what the opportunities are for balancing a budget. Revenues are now fairly clear and different scenarios need to be balanced against retirements. Employees not being rehired need to be noticed by June 1st. She will suggest the Board have a work session at the end of February to examine these issues and not leave the budget until the last minute. Negotiations bargaining with the BEA start March 13th.

 

Jerry would like to talk about budgeting with regard to how many positions are required to meet accreditation standards. Jerry believes there are other ideas for discussion, such the year the Board passed the cluster concept but did not act upon it.

 

Curt expressed concern that the Business Committee has not yet discussed budget issues or scenarios. This Committee should help with the budget concerns and not be excluded. It was suggested to have a Business Committee Work Session on March 6th to discuss “Opportunities for Budget Alignment.” A sub-committee could meet prior to that date to set the framework. Dale recommended a sub-committee develop 3-4 scenarios that could be costed by the Business Manager in preparation for the next Business Committee meeting to examine. Chair Getz appointed Curt Prchal, Jerry Hansen, Dale Getz, and Tim Cranston to the sub-committee.

 

Katharin believes it’s best for the community to make needed budget changes and that would be prior to the May election. There may be several new trustees on the Board in May.

 

Budget Year 2006-07 – Discussion

 

Thomas reviewed salary compensation and revenue schedules. Preliminary numbers show an increase of $2.6M in elementary and $1.9M in the high school. The Building Reserve levy expires with a $1.8M carryover for the 2006-07 year budget. There is a $3M revenue shortfall on the budgeted fund side for year 2006-07.

 

Jerry feels the $1.8M carryover is not bound to the building reserve levy list. Kathy suggested the high school portion could be put into the reserves to help the bond levy. Tim would like the budget process to start with the enrollment and educational needs and then cost it out by school and program. Tim believes we should be able to free dollars through retirements with no increase in staff. Kathy said the bargaining units assume vacancy savings are used for negotiations and salary increases. Thomas believes we need to allocate more funds up front and to take it into consideration for the following budget year.

 

Exploring the Power of the Curriculum Audit

 

This item is for information only.

 

Adjournment

 

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

 

 

 

 

K. Dale Getz, Chair

 

 

 

Joan Sleeth, Recorder