CAMDENTON, Mo. - The Camden County R-3 Board of Education and administration have some work to do preparing the school district's 2014-15 budget - namely, trimming down a $2 million deficit in operating funds in its first, preliminary version presented at the March 10 board meeting.
The preliminary budget projections, made with the expectation that the district's assessed valuation and property tax revenue remain similar over the next year, currently show a $2 million disparity between revenues allocated for operations and budgeted operations expenses. The preliminary budget estimates $43,687,090 in expenses for the operating and teachers' funds, which go toward things like staff salaries and supply purchases, while it estimates only $41,427,379 in receipts for those funds.
With plenty of time to make adjustments before the budget must be approved at the end of June, Camdenton R-3 Superintendent Tim Hadfield is confident he and the school board can account for those funds.
One possible solution is reallocating where some revenue from the district's $2.87 per $100 of assessed valuation tax levy goes. While the current fiscal year's levy allots $1.23 of every $2.87 in tax revenues to the operating fund and 15 cents to capital projects, Hadfield has proposed to raise the operating fund's portion of the levy to $1.33, decreasing the capital projects' portion to 5 cents, as it was in the 2012-13 school year.
"We're going to need to change some of the placement where we put monies in those funds in order to decrease that deficit," Hadfield said. "That's not raising the levy; that's just changing the way that we disburse it."
Certain cuts might then have to be made to the district's list of capital projects for the next year, which includes purchasing eight new school buses, tuck-pointing on certain buildings, replacing a boiler at the middle school, and conducting basic maintenance such as paint, equipment replacement and electrical upgrades.
While Camdenton R-3's reserve fund is in excellent shape, according to Hadfield, he wants be sure it is used in the right way to preserve the district's financial security.
"We are in very good shape with our fund balances ... In tough economic times like these, we've got to be cognizant of not having recurring expenditures take that fund balance down. You want to plan for those one-time expenditures," Hadfield said. Examples of such "one-time expenditures" might be buying extra buses or putting a new roof on a building. He does not, however, want to start paying for regular, yearly expenses out of reserves.
The school board tries to keep at least 20 percent of the current year's operating and teachers' fund expenditures in reserves at any given time. Currently, it has 38 percent in reserves, Hadfield said.
"While our preliminary budget is a challenge right now, our district has run off the same levy of $2.87 for 11 years," Hadfield said. "Through good financial stewardship of our administration and our board, we have gained reserves, and we've been cognizant of our costs and how we spend our money, and we are very fortunate."
A key concern before the budget can be completed is employee insurance.
The Teachers' Association of Camdenton (TAC), which submitted its annual salary and insurance proposal at the March 10 school board meeting, listed insurance concerns - namely establishing better rates and lower deductibles - as its top priority.
The school board met for a special session Feb. 25 to discuss ways to improve its insurance policies and potential effects of the Affordable Care Act, and they will meet again this spring to discuss the topic further.
"Nothing is really on or off the table right now," Hadfield said. "We are looking at changes with the plan as well as other options to help them better manage conditions that they might have."
The TAC proposal also called for a 3 percent pay increase. The preliminary 2014-15 budget assumes a 2 percent increase in the base salary as well as movement on the salary schedule for years of service and attainment of academic credit, which equates to an average raise of 3.4 percent.
The TAC also requested that the district help alleviate teachers' heavy workload. While at this time no new staff members are accounted for in the preliminary budget, the district plans to reallocate some positions and duties.
"We've got a lot of information left to get," Hadfield said. "This preliminary budget is based on many assumptions which could change drastically in the next several months ... It is only a rough estimate of both receipts and expenditures. We will continue to monitor what will happen at the federal, state and local levels in relation to expected receipts.