The proposed 2015-16 budget for Oxford Schools is currently projected to have a $44,671 surplus at the end of the year, which would leave the district with a $5.5 million fund balance.
School board members approved the proposed budget on a 6-0 vote at the June 24 meeting. Trustee Kim Shumaker was absent.
The proposed budget for Oxford Schools is balanced, but according Fiscal Services Consultant Mike Dixon, in order to make it happen, they had to increase the projected enrollment by 90 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) students from the 2014-15 fiscal year, which was around 5,500 FTE students.
‘Given the district’s history with enrollment growth, it is possible the enrollment growth projection will materialize,? Dixon wrote in a memo to the board.
The extra 90 FTE students would generate an additional $665,190 in revenue from the state, according to the budget.
Superintendent Tim Throne explained to this reporter the need for enrollment growth was based on a couple of assumptions.
‘One assumption is that the $362,000 deficit from 2014-15 carries forward. If that doesn’t carry forward, then I don’t have to find $362,000,? he said.
Throne noted that roughly 50 FTE students would cover the deficit and the other 40 FTE students would be used to help pay for some of the investments they’re looking at making this year.
‘If we don’t get additional students and additional revenue, then we’re not going to do all the investments,? he added. ‘We have to wait and see when our audit comes in to find out if we really have a $362,000 deficit or not.?
Audit filing with the Michigan Department of Education is Nov. 1, so Dixon estimates the auditor will present to the board sometime in October.
The general fund has $400,000 worth of investments. About $200,000 is going towards the new math curriculum at the elementary school level. It’s called ‘Math Expressions,? which will follow the new Common Core standards.
Meanwhile, roughly $100,000 will be used to purchase some new buses.
‘We’re going to buy some buses (at) auction and just try to update our fleet,? Throne told this reporter. ‘We’re doing things where we can do them and where we need them the most.?
He said they didn’t budget right up to the $400,000 mark because they wanted some wiggle room in case they didn’t get the additional revenue they were hoping for through student growth.
Trustee Joyce Brasington asked about the high school roof, which has been brought up as a concern due to leaks over the last couple years.
Dixon said they need to have a conversation about repair/maintenance versus capital improvement issues.
‘First of all, you don’t have a repair plan in the sense repairs are fixes,? he said. ‘You don’t have a plan to repair, for example, your dishwasher at home next Thursday at 4 p.m. because it’s going to probably die. What happens on repair issues is you basically show up at work and you find out something is broken. Technology gets a call that the network is down or whatever, but there (are resources to repair. The budget is something where resources are allocated to do certain activities.?
Dixon said the maintenance department is trying to maintain things.
?(Maintenance Supervisor) Bruce (Biebuyck) has all this institutional knowledge in his head and has routines where they go in and check the unit ventilators over the summer, walk the roofs, check the sump pumps, change the oil on the buses. So, there are maintenance routines,? explained Dixon. ‘Where we’re lacking, if you’re looking for a plan, is (in) truly the capital improvement part, which is the large expenditures that come from either a sinking fund or some sort of bond issue.?
Throne told this reporter ‘the reality of the roof is a million-dollar-plus issue.?
‘We’re not going to solve that with operational dollars. We’re going to repair it and try and maintain it as well as we can,? he said. ‘The day the high school roof gets rebuilt or a new one gets put on, that needs to come out of a sinking fund, capital improvement fund or a bond fund. We don’t have (those) kind of capital improvement dollars sitting there in our operational accounts.?
Preschool playground improvement
The big changes in the budget, Dixon pointed out, are in the community service fund where $130,000 is in capital outlay. Dixon said that money is from the Oxford Early Learning Center (OELC) budget and is being put towards new playground equipment at the preschool.
Through conversations with OELC Director Washea Jackson, Dixon said he learned the preschool’s playground is currently not compliant with state regulations.
‘This is something we have pay for,? he said. ‘We have to work on those compliant-related issues.?
Revenue-wise, Dixon noted the OELC program is growing ‘at a pretty good pace.? He’s confident Jackson will be able to pay for the upgrade without using any of her fund balance, but if she does have to dip into it, the board should ‘give it serious consideration.?
‘It’s a non-reoccurring expenditure that you’re dealing with here. You put in the new playground equipment and it’s out of the budget the next year,? he said. ‘It’s not like you’re adding a ton of staff where the salaries are going to be there this year and next year and it’s going to eat and erode away the fund balance.?
Dixon said they were going to meet with a landscape architect to look at the plans Jackson had and try ‘to get things packaged and done to a large extent before the start of school.?
‘I doubt we’ll be able to get everything done (before school).?
Brasington asked if the improvements at the preschool were part of the elementary playgrounds. Dixon said they were separate.
‘The preschoolers? (playground) really (has) some stringent requirements, more so than the sixth-grade playground,? he said.
Board Treasurer Dan D’Alessandro asked if the preschool playground was non-compliant because state regulations had changed lately. Dixon said yes and that he had been told by Jackson that they have been out of compliance for a couple years.
‘We have reports that playgrounds are out of compliance and we haven’t fixed them?? Brasington asked.
Seeing where the thought process was going, Chief Academic Officer Ken Weaver explained they were out of compliance because they had pulled so much equipment out over the years that there isn’t enough now for the children to play on.
‘It’s not like you (have) equipment that’s out there that’s completely falling apart,? he added. ‘We just don’t have enough equipment now (because) it’s been pulled out to the point (where) we need to start putting some back in.?
In a phone interview Monday, Throne noted that the meeting with the playground architect wasn’t just for the preschool, but that they’re trying to come up with a playground master plan for all the schools.
‘I know there is going to be some money that has to be put in the playgrounds as far as getting some base (equipment) stuff and adding (things on),? he said. ‘I don’t know the details (yet regarding) cost and what each school needs.?
As far as the overall budget, Throne is ‘comfortable at this point? knowing it will balance at the end of 2016.
‘We will continue to update as time goes along to get an even clearer picture,? he said.