School district closes year roughly $2 million under budget

The school district exceeded financial expectations for the last year, ending the year roughly $2 million under the budget stipulated for 2017-2018, an administrative official said during the district's school board meeting Tuesday night.

This achievement was made possible due to increased revenues that were not anticipated when creating the budget last fall, said chief financial officer Terry Raskiewicz. Although the revenues came from various sources that the school district has typically received funding from in the past, this past year was unique for a couple of reasons.

In this case, the most ostensible of which is that the state reassesses the property values of all school districts in Benton County every five years, and due to an increase in property values for school facilities across the county, the school district received more than $1 million, Raskiewicz said. The value of the property is assessed based on the millage rate, a measurement typically used to determine property values, and if this rate goes up, then school districts receive more state funding. If the rates go down, they receive less.

The district also received $300,000 in catastrophic funding, which is an increase of about $100,000 from last year, and received monies amounting to roughly $330,000 for their growth fund. This is also an increase from previous years due to the fact they had additional students move into the school district, a primary factor that determines the value of this fund. Raskiewicz declined to comment on what the extra revenue will be used for, and said that this information will be available when the 2018-2019 budget is released.

There were also various other items on the board's agenda for the evening, which are summarized below.

• Superintendent Ken Ramey began the meeting by formally introducing five new administrators that will be taking over various roles for the next school year. These administrators are Ann Martfeld, who will be the high school's new principal; Ross White, high school assistant principal; Victoria Groomer, Allen Elementary assistant principal; Todd Cross, new technology director and Krystal Wheat, who will serve as the new coordinator for the Panther Health and Wellness Center.

• In his staff report, Superintendent Ken Ramey opened the floor to five administrators -- who are each responsible for one of the five strategies in place for the school district's strategic plan for child development -- to provide an update on their progress as it relates to each of the strategies.

• In his staff report, Assistant Superintendent Jody Wiggins had the contractors responsible for the addition being made to the Northside Elementary School Library come and provide an update on their progress. As of now, the ceilings are completed, carpet has been laid, all windows have been put in place and furniture is slated to be installed this week. There are also plans in place to produce offices, conference rooms and break rooms, and the building passed all of the necessary city and fire marshal inspections last week.

• Board members unanimously approved a memorandum of understanding between the city and the police department that would allow for the continuation of the district's school resource officer program.

• Board members unanimously approved the school board's proposed policy changes for 2018-2019.

• Board members unanimously approved the 2018-2019 student policy handbook.

• Board members accepted the resignations of four faculty members: High school counselor Paige Heffron, high school social studies teacher Bryan Ross, middle school family and consumer science teacher Bee Fink and intermediate, sixth-grade social studies teacher Jillian Akers.

• Board members hired seven new faculty members for the 2018-2019 school year: Karis Buff, who will teach intermediate, fifth- and sixth-grade special education; Rachael Webb, intermediate, fifth-grade math; Sabrina Rivas intermediate art; Bryanna Russell, middle school family and consumer science; Samantha Dill middle school, seventh-grade social studies; Korey Loftis, Allen Elementary speech language therapist and Jamie Pierce, high school special education.