The Three Rivers Community Schools (TRCS) Board of Education approved its 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 budgets following a budget hearing Monday.
TRCS Director of Business Operations Blair Brindley presented the budget items to the board at the hearing. Her presentation included numbers for the Final Amended General Fund Budget for the 2019-2020 fiscal year, which closes today, Tuesday, June 30. Brindley also presented items for the 2020-2021 fiscal year, including the preliminary budget, the food services budget, and a 2020 tax rate request form.
The board voted to approve the 2019-20 budget, which includes revenues of $28,994,973 and expenditures of $28,910,47, during the regular meeting that followed the hearing. Brindley said the final amendment as presented does not include any decrease in state funding for 2019-20 as those decreases are reflected in the 2020-21 budget. “It does include some of our increased costs that we’ve had, but also decreased costs due to COVID,” she added. The budget includes a surplus of $84,503, leaving a total fund balance of just over $4.2 million, or 14.84 percent of the total budget.
The board also approved the 2020-21 measures that Brindley presented. According to Brindley, the food service budget is approved separately due to TRCS’ accounting system. “We operate in fund accounting, and so we have a different fund for everything. We have a general fund, a debt fund, student activities, scholarships, and also food service,” Brindley said. “They operate within their own funds, and they do have revenue from local, state, and federal (sources). We’re anticipating them to end with a fund balance from last year of $420,000.” The food services budget sets revenues at $1,449,858 and expenditures at $1,372,206.
The preliminary budget for 2020-21 anticipates a drop in state revenue by $650 per pupil, and a reduction in enrollment of 50 pupils, but includes Federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act revenue. Brindley estimated that overall revenue will be down. “This is all based on just what we’ve heard. There’s no direction out of the state yet, so we’ll obviously be having an amendment coming to us fairly early for next year compared to what we’re used to.”
The budget also does not account for any possible “return-to-learn” adjustments to operations from COVID-19 guidelines, which Brindley expects to hear about from the governor’s office on Tuesday. It includes some decreases to several positions that “we won’t implement until we have further information from the state,” Brindley said. “It does implement quite a few cost saving measures operationally to try and herd that debt.”
The preliminary budget presents a deficit of $203,208, down from last year’s surplus of $84,503. “This is unique,” Brindley said, because although the deficit will require TRCS to dip into its fund balance, decreased expenses will offset the deficit, meaning that the fund balance, measured as a percentage of the total budget, will remain the same from one fiscal year to the next. The 2020-21 figure is thus predicted to duplicate the 14.84 percent figure of the 2019-20 amended budget.
The 2020-21 preliminary budget as adopted Monday sets revenues at $27,422,496, and expenditures at $27,625,704, and levies 18 mills of Ad Valorem property tax “on all non- homestead and non-qualified agricultural property,” according to the measure that passed.
The associated tax rate request form measure reflected this, including an operating millage of 18 mills and 4.9 debt mills. The tax form, which the BOE approved, is completed each year, and goes out to all of the relevant taxing units to ensure TRCS’ revenue streams.
NEW BAND DIRECTOR HIRED
Also at Monday’s meeting, the board approved the hire of Cheryl Thomas to the position of band director at Three Rivers Middle School and High School. Thomas will replace Bryan VanToll, who held the position for 11 years.
“Thomas has 18 years of total experience in education, and she comes to us from Coloma. She’s been the band director there since 2004,” Board President Erin Nowak told the Watershed Voice in a follow-up call after Monday’s meeting. Nowak said her extensive experience set Thomas apart, along with some of her accolades. “She is the President of District Nine, I believe, of the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association.”
BUY-OUT AND PAY FREEZE MEASURES APPROVED
Due to declining revenues, the board has been working with staff and faculty to promote voluntary staff reductions. On Monday, board members approved offer letters that set the terms for voluntary buyouts.
“We had offered any teachers that have 10 years or more of experience with our district a $30,000 buyout if they were interested in leaving the district. It was a cost-saving measure,” Nowak told Watershed Voice. “It’s a state budgetary thing. With the anticipated cut in student funding, we were faced with a $2 million-plus deficit budget, so it was one of the creative ways we came up with for saving some money. At our last count, we had six for sure that took the offer.”
Nowak added, “It’s our hope that those positions will just be absorbed within the district,” which she says can be accommodated by reduced demand for capacity. Each year, TRCS enrollment goes down by approximately 50 students due to the long-term impacts of a declining local birth rate.
Also, due to the fiscal impacts of COVID-19, the BOE approved two letters of agreement with faculty and staff that freeze wages and salary increases until August 31, when Nowak expects to revisit the measures and determine whether the freeze will remain in effect longer. One letter affects faculty, and one affects TRCS’ paraprofessionals, which includes wage freezes. The terms were negotiated with the Three Rivers Education Association and the Service Employees International Union respectively.
“By the end of August we should have much better data for the state aid coming in,” Nowak told Watershed Voice. “We’re hoping to have pretty much final reimbursement numbers from the state by that time.”
Annual salary and wage increases normally occur at the start of each fiscal year on July 1.
COVID-19 PREPAREDNESS PLAN MOVES FORWARD
The board approved a COVID-19 Preparedness and Response plan, which Nowak says is fairly standard. “It pretty much just says that we are going to be following the state and the local health department guidelines, and that’s what we’re using to develop our policies and procedures,” Nowak told Watershed Voice. “It’s really designed to be a fluid document, and change along with the regulations that are put out by the state and the district health department. It’s just pretty basic COVID information that we’ve all heard.”
Dave Vago is a staff writer and columnist for Watershed Voice. A Philadelphia native with roots in Three Rivers, Vago is a planning consultant to history and community development organizations and is the former Executive Director of the Three Rivers DDA/Main Street program.
