Charles City school board adopts $9.7 million budget for FY2014-15

Charles City’s school board adopted a $9.7 million budget for the FY2014-15 school year at its June 17 meeting.

Representatives took action on the figure, voting 4-1 in favor of the budget. Casting the lone dissenting voice was at-large member Steve Fuhrmann, who disagreed with the amount of money allocated to instruction.

“According to this budget and using the formula for the state report card, only 56.9 percent is designated for instruction,” he said. “I can’t approve of a budget when the state average is 65 percent.”

However, outgoing superintendent of schools Janet Crawley said the state report card is generated for the federal government to designate funding to the state and not a true reflection.

“If you look at other school systems that are our size, you can see that the amount of money we are spending on instruction is an accurate reflection,” she said. “If you want this budget to be 65 percent instruction based on the state report card, you will have to make significant cuts and more than likely terminate positions.”

The $9,743,525 reflects three rounds of cuts made by the board members after not receiving level funding at the local level. The first round of cuts include the elimination of a school nurse, a preschool class, tuition for new students at both governor’s schools, and payment on bus leases. A second round of cuts consisted of eliminating teacher aids, a reduction of therapeutic services, and consolidating teaching positions at the high school. The final cuts approved by school board members include eliminating after school remediation at the elementary and middle school, partial elimination of remediation at the high school, reducing supplements for department heads, reducing extracurricular activity stipends by five percent, and reducing a full-time maintenance position to part-time.

Crawley left words of advice to school board members about future issues to address when discussing the FY 2015-16 budget.

“I suggest you take a hard look at offering all employees raises,” she said. “They have not received a raise in five years and it’s difficult to bring teachers in and keep teachers here in the school system when they are not compensated.

“I also suggest you invest in capital projects,” she added. “The school is physically breaking down and in need of major, dire repairs.”

Crawley is retiring after 14 years as superintendent of county schools and 43 years in the field of education, all in Charles City. Dr. David Gaston will become the school’s new superintendent effective July 1.