Warrior Notes: New year off to good start
By REX WATSON
Superintendent, USD 398
The school year is off to a great start. Seventh graders, ninth graders, and students new to the district were treated to an orientation event at PBHS Aug. 15 that included a slide show to introduce staff members, a pep assembly, and a scavenger hunt to familiarize students with the facility. At PBES, excited students met their new teachers, toured the building, and reviewed a variety of procedures and expectations for the year. It is exciting to have the buildings occupied, once again, by students and teachers.
Summer maintenance crews have the buildings cleaned and well prepared for the start of school and there have been a couple of security upgrade projects completed during the summer. At PBES, a new set of interior doors have been installed so that visitors to the school will be routed through the office prior to gaining access to the classrooms.
At PBJH/PBHS, a new security camera system was installed so office staff can monitor activity throughout the building and grounds. Sixteen security cameras that are located throughout the building feed real-time images into a computer system so that the entire facility can be monitored from a single location.
Hopefully both of these measures will serve as a deterrent to unwanted activity and keep our students safer than in the past.
At the August board of education meeting, the board approved the 2007-2008 school budget for certification to the county clerk. Overall, the local school tax levy (specifically the Local Option Budget) increased by approximately one mill. Growing interest rates on some of the district's investments helped us avoid a more sizable increase. As it currently stands, property owners in the district will be assessed slightly less than 50 mills for operation of the school district.
Schools in Kansas receive revenue from a variety of sources including the federal government, state government, and local property owners. In Peabody-Burns USD #398, we have budget authority to spend about $5.2 million during the 2007-2008 fiscal year. Of that $5.2 million amount, only about $1.1 million come directly from local property owners. The remainder comes from the state, the federal government, or other sources.
By being frugal and carefully monitoring our expenditures, we hope to maintain the tradition of keeping our local taxes low. There are several uncontrollable factors, however, that will impact our school budgets dramatically in the future. The cost of energy continues to be volatile. Our school is a major consumer of diesel fuel, natural gas, and electricity. Dramatic changes in the prices of these commodities will certainly impact our budget.
The shortage of teachers is also a major concern as it is becoming more and more difficult to recruit quality teachers, especially in difficult to fill positions. Teacher salaries will have to increase if we hope to recruit and retain the best teachers.
Declining enrollment is another serious issue that we face each year. Our general fund budget is based upon the number of students we have enrolled and, as enrollment numbers decline, any cash shortage must be made up in the Local Option Budget.
All in all, however, our district is in pretty good financial shape at this time. We began the school year with a cash balance of nearly a half million dollars in capital outlay and about $128,000 in contingency reserve. We are currently operating with a Local Option Budget that is only 18.78 percent of our general fund while the state average is 26.38 percent. Additionally, our district also has a 4-mill capital outlay resolution in effect that we have chosen to not impose at this time.
What does all of this mean for a Peabody-Burns student? It costs a little less than $15,000 a year for an education at PBES, PBJH, or PBHS but only about $3,100 comes directly from local property taxes.
Next month I will report on the new direction we have taken with regard to managing disciplinary referrals and I will share some of the philosophical rationale behind the creation of the Peabody-Burns Success Center.
