Circumstances cited for Re-1J’s $80,000 deficit

Holyoke School District Re-1J’s fund balance for the 2015-16 general fund decreased by $81,333, according to the audit report approved at the Jan. 17 meeting of the school board.

This brings the beginning fund balance for the 2016-17 year to $1,359,080.

Auditor Scott Szabo of Lauer, Szabo & Associates, PC, gave the audit report at the beginning of the board’s retreat Jan. 3, with approval of the audit handled at the Jan. 17 board meeting.

In his report, Szabo cited the district’s pending $200,000 settlement with Boards of Education Self-Funded Trust as the culprit for the $81,333 deficit for the year. The board was previously enrolled in the BEST health plan, and participation was terminated June 30, 2016.

Without that settlement, the district would have been looking at a $118,667 increase in the fund balance, noted Szabo.

A 45-day extension for audit approval was granted the district due to timing for scheduling the audit report to the board.

After accepting the 2015-16 audit report last week, the board adopted the 2016-17 budget, projecting an ending fund balance of $1,359,080 on June 30, 2017.

They also authorized the use of a portion of the beginning fund balance from the general fund. Superintendent John McCleary said they don’t anticipate using this, but it was authorized in order to stay in compliance. If the district uses a portion of that beginning fund balance, the board will be notified of the amount.

The following appropriations for the adopted budget were approved for 2016-17:

General Fund  $7,263,663
Food Service  $254,120
Bond Redemption  $496,709
Trust and Agency  $39,746
Pupil Activity  $397,764
Total Approp.  $8,452,002
 

BEST settlement moving ahead

A settlement with BEST is still in the works, in order for the school district to make sure they’re in compliance with the Taxpayers Bill of Rights, noted McCleary.

The district will settle on a payback of $200,000 to be made in five annual installments of $40,000. There’s an option that the payback could extend into a sixth year. One of the annual payments could be postponed to the sixth year, with 90 days written notice to BEST.

Holyoke School District joined the BEST Health Insurance Company six years ago in the spirit of working with the Colorado Association of School Boards and being part of a self-funded trust in which districts had a say in the quality and costs of their insurance.

During the five years that Holyoke remained in BEST Health, BEST incurred a lot of deficit due to health costs. Districts became nervous about increasing debt and whether the trust was going to stay stable. BEST cut a deal with each district that they would freeze the debts but noted that if a district left for any reason, it would be required to pay back the deficit it owed to the trust.

With the definition of small groups, BEST believed it would be in their best interest, as well as Holyoke School District’s, for Holyoke to leave the trust and go out on the open market.

Based on that, BEST program administrators came to the district to say they were facilitating the removal of Holyoke from the program.

McCleary noted this created a significant panic in the district and forced them to start looking for health insurance in March before it ran out July 1.

While panic was the case, McCleary said it was beneficial, as the district is seeing a $94,000 decrease in health insurance coverage this year. There’s also an increase in employee satisfaction with the new program, he added.

According to McCleary, BEST addressed the issue again Aug. 13, saying Holyoke owed $538,610, due by Sept. 30. Holyoke disputed that, and BEST became willing to negotiate.

McCleary said the district isn’t arguing incurred costs of around $50,000-$60,000. However, there’s no clear language around the termination, and no directive as to what payback is required if a district is terminated as opposed to voluntarily leaving.

After extensive negotiation, the district is looking at a $200,000 settlement, down from what BEST is now saying is a $620,000 debt. The settlement agreement is expected to be finalized next month.

 

School calendar proposal looks at Monday late-starts, more inservice during year

With more in-house professional development days as a key focus, leadership team member Angie Powell presented a draft 2017-18 calendar at last week’s board meeting.

In past years, six days of professional development have been scheduled just prior to the start of school. The draft presented by Powell spreads those days throughout the school year — on Mondays in which there would be no school for students.

Additionally, she cited the idea of moving late-start Fridays to late-start Mondays each week.

The calendar will be taken to staff for input and will return to the board next month.

The draft calendar notes teacher inservice days Aug. 14-16, with students starting classes Thursday, Aug. 17. Other proposed inservice days are Sept. 18, Oct. 16, Nov. 13, Jan. 2 and 15, Feb. 26 and April 16. Graduation will be Sunday, May 13, 2018.

 

Superintendent evaluation completed by board

With a three-point rating structure, the evaluation for McCleary for 2016-17 averaged at 2.118, as released by the Board of Education last week.

His individual ratings for the five domains follow: instructional leadership, 2.22; leadership/personnel management, 2.09; budget development/management, 2.14; facilities management, 2.00; and community outreach, 2.14.

At a work session just prior to Tuesday’s meeting, the board reviewed extensive information pertaining to the superintendent evaluation tool, as compiled by board member Pat Wiebers.

There was consensus for the need to clarify scoring and perhaps to change to a four-point rubric, as opposed to the current three-point scale.

Consideration was also pondered for changing the timeline for various aspects of the evaluation throughout the year.

Wiebers agreed to compile information as discussed for further review.

 

First-semester audit completed for random drug testing

McCleary met with Holyoke JR/SR High Principal Susan Ortner, who also serves as the random drug testing coordinator, to complete the first-semester audit for the testing program Jan. 10.

He reported at last week’s board meeting that there were no variances from procedures and all paperwork was in order.

Ortner reported that 214 students were enrolled in random drug testing as of Dec. 12, 2016. During the first semester, 103 tests by urinary analysis/EtG were conducted. No positive tests were reported.

The semester report indicated that 95 students were tested once and four students were tested twice. Only two students’ numbers were drawn twice. The other two were retested for flaws in the samples.

 

Policies discussed

Two policies will move to first reading at the next meeting as the result of discussion last week. The policies deal with a professional support personnel salary schedule and administration of medical marijuana to qualified students.

Policy GDBA-E involves the concept of increasing minimum wage to $9.30 as passed by voters in the state of Colorado last November. McCleary noted that education is not one of the industries required to follow the minimum wage regulation. The only area of the district policy that has the minimum wage is substitute work pay (not to be confused with substitute teacher pay).

The minimum wage will continue to increase by 90 cents each Jan. 1 until it reaches $12 per hour in 2020, and annually adjusts for cost of living increases after that.

While the district may not be required to abide by the minimum wage requirements, McCleary cited the importance of understanding how this will impact employees and the district’s ability to fill and keep staff. He said this will have to be addressed in order to remain competitive.

Policy JLCDB and its exhibit address the administration of medical marijuana to qualified students. State law requires school districts to allow “primary caregivers” to administer medical marijuana to qualified students on school property.

McCleary returned the policy to the table with additional information to emphasize his feeling that the district will be better off to have a policy in place to give administrators a solid basis from which to manage such a situation if it should arise.

He cited specific language to identify designated location, permissible form of medical marijuana, primary caregiver and qualified student. He said the policy wording seems pretty regulated.

In other policy action, the board approved second reading of Policy GDD on support staff vacations and holidays.

 

Other business

In other business at the Jan. 17 meeting, the Re-1J board:

—approved several extra-duty assignments, including Spencer Kotch, volunteer wrestling; Bryan Beckner, weight room supervisor; and Hayden Dickson, volunteer HS boys basketball.
Stipends and positions were also approved for the JH/HS track and field coaching staff as follows: Dusty Sprague, head HS track, $2,274; Amber Schroetlin, head JH track and pole vault, $2,000; Kia Kassman, assistant JH/HS track, $2,000; Corey Koberstein, assistant JH/HS track, $2,000; Cindi Beavers, assistant track, $1,516; and Amanda Skinner, assistant JH track, $1,341.

—noted in the monthly food service report that Holyoke was chosen to receive a combined warmer and steamer through the Colorado Department of Education equipment grant, with the total grant value being over $37,000.

—accepted resignations from kindergarten teacher Kara Stephens at the end of the school year and high school custodian Maria Elva Montes, effective Jan. 20.
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—accepted nonresident student Melissa Barraza and approved a transportation request for pickup in Paoli.

—designated that the official posting location for board meeting notices will be the administration office.

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