Pekin Projected to Lose Half a Million in Funding

PACKWOOD – During the Dec. 10 meeting of the Pekin School Board, Superintendent Jeff Maeder revealed that, according to budget projections, the district is expecting a loss of 500,000-600,000 dollars in spending authority funds. Maeder stated this was due to multiple factors, but pointed to the large number of students that open enrolled out of the district this year as one of the key causes. Maeder stated that, during the previous fiscal year, the district had roughly 2.5 million dollars in its unspent balance, meaning this is a hit of roughly 20%.

The superintendent stated that Pekin needed to figure out strategic ways to save money, but that it would be difficult for a district of this size to save $500,000. He stated the first priority was to have as little direct impact on students as possible, and that the second most important thing was to retain high quality staff. Maeder stated that the cuts do not have to all happen in one year, but that the district needs to keep an even closer eye on spending.

Maeder listed off several ideas to save money, like having more operational sharing with other districts. He noted that Pekin had cut its operational sharing in half in the past year, losing sharing agreements for transportation director, maintenance director and school board secretary. He also noted that Pekin used to share its superintendent job. Maeder stated operational sharing wasn’t as simple as it seems, and that the district still needs to pay the salaries of shared employees, but that the district could get $32,000 by sharing the transportation director and $72,000 by sharing the superintendent.

He also brought up having a part time superintendent, which could save 50-60 thousand dollars; transferring funds from the Teacher Leadership & Compensation fund, which is currently used for instructional coaches and building leadership and has around $200,000 to work with; contracting out custodial, nutrition and technology staff to outside companies, which would allow them to be paid from the Physical Plant and Equipment Levy Fund (PPEL), which is intended to be used for maintenance and upkeep; combining bus routes, which would not save much on gas but could save $15,000 per cut bus driver; paying closer attention to paying out overtime; developing building line item budgets; moving to two sections at the elementary; and reducing custodial and transportation staff.

Maeder stressed that this was just a list of possibilities, and that the district would likely not implement all of these changes. He stated that he had spoken to the school’s lead financial consultant, who told him there wasn’t a rush to make these decisions, and that the district should wait to see what the legislature gives for state aid this year.

Board Member Ray Fear asked what the time frame was to make decisions that would impact the next school year. Maeder stated it depended on how deep the board wanted to go with cuts, and that he thinks the board will be looking into ways to reduce costs for the next few years. He noted that, even if the board approves a big cut this year, that doesn’t guarantee they won’t have to do another big cut the next year, depending on how enrollment is. He recommended taking a look at operational sharing and seeing how far that gets the district.

Board member J.J. Greiner stated that he didn’t want to make it seem like this wasn’t a big deal, but that a lot of districts in Iowa were going through this right now, due to the legislature making changes to open enrollment to private schools. He noted that the district had 2.5 million dollars in the bank and thus time to fix things. Maeder stated that, in less than five years, Pekin would be broke, if things are not changed.

Maeder stated that he didn’t want Pekin to be short staffed and would have to look for cuts other than to teacher staffing, at least in the beginning. He noted Pekin teachers were already struggling to give students the attention they need. Board member Kortney Baumberger explained that public schools have different “buckets” to spend from for different things, and that the public needs to understand that. Greiner explained that teachers are paid out of the general fund, and that even if there was $3,000,000 in PPEL, the district still wouldn’t be able to function if the general fund unspent balance was zero.

Board member Josh Arendt asked if there were things Pekin could do to get enrollment up, saying that seemed like a better route than cuts to him. Maeder stated he was working to promote the district. He stated that, “in today’s society,” one bad experience can lead to a student or even an entire family leaving the district. Arendt asked what number of students the district needed to reach. Maeder stated he was unsure, and that the district wouldn’t make up enough students in one year, but that steadily increasing enrollment and getting it positive again would be huge. He noted that Pekin used to have an above average amount of students open enrolled into the district, but that the district had gone back to the state average amount this year, resulting in the loss in funding.

Board member Michael Sieren asked if the district knew why families were open enrolling out of Pekin. Secretary Ann Swanson stated many families moved or left for family reasons. Greiner stated that around half of the students who open enrolled out of Pekin this year but didn’t in the past went to homeschool or private schools. Sieren stated he didn’t know if concerted effort would be able to reel in 30 more students, and that they can’t offer what these students need to come back, because they left for family issues rather than service issues.

Swanson stated the lowered enrollment didn’t happen overnight, and that Pekin had been declining for years, losing 100 kids in the past five years. She stated it was more noticeable this year, because the district lost 30 kids. Board member Sherry Bemis stated this was a trend in Iowa and that very few schools were staying positive.

Later in the meeting, the board approved sending a request to the Iowa School Budget Review Committee requesting a modified spending authority for this year, to cover the costs of open enrolled students who were not included in the previous year’s certified enrollment amount. Maeder explained the district qualified for $226,624, which can go towards this deficit, but that it will only last for one year. He stated it wasn’t good to need to request so much, but that it would be good to have.

Maeder stated he was working on the details of what a four-day week calendar would look like, and plans to give a recommendation to the board in January. He stated that they were not trying to rush things, and that there were going to be people who didn’t want the change. He stated he was approaching this from a mindset of wanting to attract and retain staff, and that switching to a four-day week would not save money.

Secondary Principal Shawn Dorman brought up the recent Iowa School Performance Profiles, which showed Pekin Jr/Sr High falling from High Performing to Needs Improvement. Dorman stated this was because the new standards removed Conditions for Learning, which Pekin excelled at, and added Chronic Absenteeism, which Pekin struggles with.

The board approved hiring Grundmeyer Leader Services as a superintendent search firm; the board decided to meet with Grundmeyer during an upcoming work session, to ensure work begins before Christmas. The board approved a $26,135 bid from Liberty Door for safety doors; this will be paid out of the safety grand fund. The board approved purchasing Frontline, a new app to be used for clocking in and taking time off. Currently, the district uses two different apps for time management and absentee management, which leads to complicated, inefficient and inaccurate tracking of hours. The app will be paid for out of PPEL.