Board of Education hears budget report

 

By ANGELA FARR KING

The Alexander County Board of Education met for their regularly scheduled monthly meeting on Tuesday, July 9, 2024, at 6 p.m. This was the first meeting that included Dr. Bill Griffin, the new Superintendent of Schools for Alexander County.

In his first Superintendent’s Report, Dr. Griffin thanked Alexander County for the warm welcome he has received. He also said how grateful he is to the Board of Education for allowing him to serve the staff, students, and community of Alexander County. He said he “looks forward to strengthening relationships and getting to know everyone that is involved with our school system.” He added that he is “diligently working with Sharon Mehaffey, Dr. Alisha Cloer, and other district and school leaders to analyze and dissect our budget and school system needs.”

To further explain the state of the budget, Sharon Mehaffey, Chief Financial Officer, gave a financial report to close out the school year 2023-2024. This can now be expected monthly at each board meeting. Mehaffey noted that auditors will conduct their annual review of the budget in mid August. She said that the original projected budget for the 23-24 school year was $69,249,993 million dollars, with 53% of the money coming from state funds. When the budget was passed late in September of 2023, it was actually $71,890,677 due to the increase in state benefits linked to the salaries of each employee that must be paid by the Alexander County School System.

Mehaffey shared that NC Governor Roy Cooper signed a Bill just yesterday that formally authorized pay raises for school employees for the second year of the two year budget lawmakers enacted last year. Non-certified employees (assistants, bus drivers, custodians, etc…) will receive a 3% increase in pay, while beginning teachers are expected to receive an approximate 5% pay increase, raising their monthly salary from $3,900 to $4,100. Mehaffey was unable to share all of the percentages for the other step increases for certified employees, but said they range from 3-5% (depending on years of service). She added that the cost of employee benefits has increased approximately $500 per employee, which will cost the school system an estimated $171,500. Retirement benefits will decrease from 25.02% to 24% and Mehaffey said this will help save the school system quite a bit of money.

She said the state is projecting to fund Alexander County for 4,412 students for the coming school year, which is a loss of 128 students. This is a large loss of funding. She also shared that the school system is expected to lose one instructional support position, 6 vocational education months of employment, and $66,941 dollars in disadvantaged student funding. In spite of this bad news, Mehaffey added that there is some good news pertaining to the budget. Alexander County is expected to receive $46,000 in Teacher Assistant funds, $572,000 in Low Wealth Funds due to a reevaluation completed for counties in the Western part of the state, and $117,000 in At Risk Student Funds.

Board Chairman Rob Arguelles asked Mehaffey about the amount left in the Fund Balance for ACS and Mehaffey replied that they had planned to use $950,000 from the Fund Balance for last year’s budget and that is what they have spent out of that fund. She expects they will not need to use more than planned.

Superintendent Griffin added, “I asked Sharon to share out tonight. We are certainly conscious of our scenarios and situations and we are working to move things in the right direction.” He thanked Mehaffey for her hard work in preparing this report.

Facilities and Maintenance Director Chris Campbell shared that his team is “back to the drawing board” for updating the Heating and Air Conditioning System at West Alexander Middle School. His department applied for capital needs grants for this project and they did not receive any funding. The two bids they received were $3,500,000 from Associated Heating and Air Conditioning and $4,436,489 from Matthews Mechanical. Both bids are out of range for Alexander County Schools at this time so both were rejected.

Mehaffey then presented the following Board Policies for approval upon second reading with no revisions and they passed unanimously: Policy No. 4040/7310 – Staff-Student Relations, Policy No. 4240/7312 – Child Abuse and Related Threats to Child Safety, Policy No. 4270/6145 – Concussion and Head Injury, Policy No. 6430 – Purchasing Requirements for Equipment, Materials, and Supplies, Policy No. 7130- Licensure.

Mehaffey also presented a second reading for a new policy, which was unanimously approved: Policy No. 4140 – Foreign Exchange Students. Finally, she presented a policy for first reading and the board will hear it again next month for feedback: Policy No. 6125 – Administering Medicines to Students.

The meeting then entered into closed session to discuss personnel.