MCS school board considers tight budget for 2019-2020
The Madison City Board of Education got its first look at a proposed 2019-2020 budget described as one of the tightest and most challenging ever.
The cover slide of Chief School Financial Officer Jana Gray’s budget presentation was a fitting opener. It showed a pig morphing into a skinny one across the 21 year timeline that MCS has been a school system.
The symbolism, of course, was the cumulative debt from building schools amid rising costs from huge enrollment gains.
Ms. Gray characterized the district’s growing pains with a “Field of Dreams” analogy. “If you build it, they will come. Even if you don’t build it,” she continued “they will come.”
Front and center of BOE concerns: the record low 37-day reserve built in the budget. That’s contrary to the historical 45-day reserve MCS Boards traditionally set. Reserves are a cushion against state ordered proration and economic downswings.
If approved as is, spending will exceed revenues for the second year in a row.
That premise influenced a later action on the agenda concerning a computer program bid. Superintendent Robby Parker asked to amend a 3-yr contract calling for payment in full to a one year with renewal options, even though it will cost the district $25,000 more each of those years.
Parker voiced concern a 3-year commitment would tie up money that would be badly needed if the Sept. 10 tax vote to build schools fails.
Gray’s budget proposal walked Board members through a multitude of revenue and spending charts. Among them were state rankings showing MCS 87th of 138 in Alabama in per-pupil spending, 124th worse in per-pupil teacher ratios, unfunded mandates and a multi-million dollar drain from getting state allocations in arrears.
The 2019-2020 budget includes state funds based on the 11,054-student count from last October 15. That is the state’s benchmark date to calculate state allocations for each school system for the next fiscal year. Board President Ranae Bartlett noted that enrollment climbed several hundred students past that throughout the school year, even into the final month of school.
Madison City’s current enrollment is now over approximately 11,700. That forces MCS to absorb the more than $3 million difference for the additional teaching units and related expenses.
The meeting ended on a positive note when Board member Greg Hulsey commented about all the athletic, musical and arts events getting started at the schools. “Despite the challenges, let’s not lose sight of all the great things we’ve got going on,” he said.
The second reading of the budget will be at the Board’s Sept. 5 meeting.
– From John Peck, MCS
