School budget OK’d; health insurance premiums celebrated
The Pulaski County School Board on Monday reached final approval of its budget for next school year – a spending plan that meets all its top priorities and reaches an important milestone for school employees and their health insurance premiums.
The final budget totals just under $52 million – an increase over this year’s budget of $1.4 million.
Included in that increase is a $1.1 million increase in state funding and $292,000 in increased funding from the county, which puts Pulaski County funding for education for next school year at just under $16 million.
The increased state and county funding is enough to cover the costs of the school board’s top four budget priorities for the year:
#1 Five Percent Increase for Teachers: $1,353,853
#2 Five Percent Increase for Support Staff: $485,918
#3 New Salary Scale for Custodians: $149,259
#4 Increase Elementary Asst. Principal Contracts: $34,916
The final version of the budget also includes a budget contingency amount of $345,000 that will be carried over from the current fiscal year. The contingency had been created to guard against an expected budget shortfall this year due to COVID-19 – a shortfall that did not occur.
According to Chris Stafford, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Business Operations a decision on bus purchases will be delayed until at least the second quarter of the next fiscal year.
That move reduces the 2021-22 projected expenses by $337,000 – allowing budget revenues and expenditures to balance.
During recent budget negotiations with the county’s Board of Supervisors, bus purchases became a strong point of contention.
Supervisors recommended buying five buses through the school system’s capital improvement plan and paying for them by delaying some improvement projects to free up money. The supervisors reasoned not all the improvement projects desired for 2021-22 could be completed during the fiscal year, so a delay wouldn’t hurt.
The school board balked at that idea, saying buying buses out of capital improvement funds was not part of an earlier agreement between the two boards on paying for capital projects. The school board prefers to buy buses from its operational budget.
By delaying a decision on buses until the second quarter, Stafford said such a move will give the school board’s finance department time to assess budget variables such as student enrollment and identify any potential cost savings whereby more school buses could be funded through the Operating Budget rather than utilizing capital improvement money and potentially delaying projects.
The budget was approved by a unanimous vote of the school board.
Also approved were the health insurance rates for the 2021-22 fiscal year.
“This is a bucket list type thing for me,” commented Stafford in presenting the rates to the school board.
The school system’s health insurance consultants had calculated a 12-percent decrease in rates for next school year, however, school officials opted to be more conservative and set rates based only on a targeted 6-percent overall decrease in rates.
Stafford said the goal was to push as much of the decrease in health insurance costs over to the employees to seek parity with county employees’ rates.
According to Stafford, school employees’ health insurance rates beginning July 1 will now match county employees’ rates for the first time since the two health insurance plans became self-funded several years ago.
Stafford said there are substantial reductions in premiums in six of eight coverage categories, with decreases ranging from $22 to $261 to be added to employees’ take-home pay.
The decreases also put Pulaski County in a superior position to some other area school divisions, including Radford, which will aid Pulaski County in competition for hiring and retaining teachers and administrators.
School Board Chairman Tim Hurst, noting a disparity in health insurance costs between county and school employees for eight years, said the new rates are a “huge win for school employees” that has been a “long time in coming.”
He said the differences in rates between Pulaski County and Radford is “a huge victory for Pulaski County Schools.”
School Superintendent Dr. Kevin Siers noted the savings in health insurance more than makes up for any difference in pay scale.
By MIKE WILLIAMS, The Patriot