CC school plan again tabled, state revenue could dwindle

Charles City’s School Board members decided to delay approval of the county schools’ six-year plan at its Tuesday night meeting.

The Standards of Quality (SOQ) six-year plan is a working document used to guide intentions and goals of the school system. The document has been worked on for several months and will now have another month to be reviewed by board members.

Last November, board members held a public hearing on the document. That hearing attracted only two speakers. Board member Steve Fuhrmann voiced numerous concerns about the document and asked the board to table it. After two months, the document reemerged, and Fuhrmann still believes more work is necessary.

“My main problem with this revision is one of the proposed measures,” he said. “I don’t understand what it means by the ‘failure to reduce math by 10 percent’ statement.”

Director of special services Patricia Alexander, explained that the annual measurable objectives (AMOs) focus on decreasing failure rate in SOL testing by 10 percent or more every year, and accreditation goals are targeted for a 70 percent rate to return to full accreditation. Still, Fuhrmann had questions about the goals.

“Even if we only reduce the failure rate by 5.5 percent, we won’t have accredited schools next year,” he said.

Alexander said AMOs and accreditation are two separate entities and measurable objectives.

Fuhrmann, however, did praise other details implemented into the revised plan.

“I’m happy with the actions and measures that have been placed,” he said. “I am worried about the accountability aspect listed here, though.”

Superintendent of schools Janet Crawley said that a plan of who will be responsible and accountable will be available for the next meeting, prompting the tabling for approval until the February meeting.

“I want to make sure we have it all,” said District 3 representative Martha Harris. “I want to make sure we have gone through it all, and I don’t see how a month will hurt us because this is a document that we are going to work from.”

In another matter, the first preliminary budget projection was presented to the board.

Crawley read from a prepared document that projected Charles City schools to have an ADM (average daily membership) of 698 students for the 2013-14 school year, according to Gov. Bob McDonnell’s state-wide projection that uses the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center to project enrollment.

If that number proves accurate, the school system could lose $90,336 in projected state revenue. According to a report released on Jan. 9, Charles City schools are projected to receive state revenue in the amount of $4,250,154.

Financial director David Papenfuse, who was absent due to a previous engagement, prepared his own numbers that used local grade-to-grade historical data to determine an ADM of 714 for the county. With his projection, the school would absorb only a decrease of $26,289 in state revenue. Papenfuse expects state revenue for schools to total $4,278,154 for FY 2014.

State revenue would increase by $40,707 in support of the governor’s two percent salary initiative with all other revenue sources impacted by either changes in funding or more significantly the projected decrease in ADM. That increase does not include a two percent pay increase for teachers.

Also, the governor’s proposed recommendations for the current school year could result in a decrease of $10,182 in state money.