Gilpin School Board cuts teachers/programs

Lynn Volkens

05/29/2008 - Gilpin School’s Board of Education met May 19^th with a dozen members of the community or school staff waiting in the gallery to have their say. Those who waited to speak at the meeting’s final public forum first sat through four and a half hours of Board speak. Board President Scott Groginsky convened the meeting five minutes late, awaiting the arrival of new Board member, Jerry Yocom. Once Yocom was seated, there was a full house (Groginsky, Rusty Hardy, Craig Holmes, Bob Masslich, Yocom) on the opposite side of the table as well.

Public Comment Fore and Aft

  A woman informed the Board that her family had retained an attorney and was only two signatures away from filing a lawsuit against Superintendent Ken Ladouceur, Gilpin County School District and Board President Scott Groginsky. She distributed half inch thick packets of papers to each Board member, documenting problems her family has had in dealing with Ladouceur and Groginsky with her husband’s application to coach wrestling and baseball. Ladouceur’s “actions and/or inactions” have damaged her husband’s reputation in the community and nearly prevented his obtaining another coaching position, she said. Ladouceur had denied her husband the positions based on an incorrect Colorado Bureau of Investigation report, although the man had explained the situation and was in the process of getting the corrected report. A copy of that CBI report was included in the packet. “We are not looking to collect for damages or even an apology,” said the woman. They are asking that coaching positions that were offered to her husband be put back on the table. “The very fact that he is once again eligible would be enough for this small community to embrace as proof that my husband is indeed innocent,” she concluded. She asked the Board to examine the documentation and relay their decision in a public forum prior to June 1^st.

  Band teacher, Jeanne Sonnleitner, told the Board the situation with her job had been handled very poorly and advised them to “do this differently so teachers know ahead of time and can find a job.” Sonnleitner was told by her principal that her position had been “cut” and other teachers were discussing the cut with students in their classes the very next day. A couple weeks later, at April’s Arts Fest, Sonnleitner announced to parents that she would not be returning as her position had been cut. Parents questioned the cut at the next Board meeting and were told “no cuts have been made, it is only a recommendation.” This left Sonnleitner, students and parents wondering what had just happened.

   “How much longer are you going to go on?” a member of the public asked as the meeting progressed into its fourth hour. Groginsky told her he didn’t really know, whereupon the woman expressed her exasperation and left.

Congrats!

  Kudos to: $25,000 scholarship recipient, Tess Brownson, the band for their Spring Concert, the Elementary Student of the Week program, Snow Dodgers Coordinator, Barb Bedwell, and the choir’s “Excellent” rating at the recent Music in the Park competition.

Budget Presentation

  Business Manager Terry Scharg put the Board on notice that two supplemental appropriations are needed for the budget. The General Fund will need an appropriation to cover early severance pay-outs and the Grant Fund must have an appropriation to accommodate a science program. Scharg also provided a quick run-down of the budget revenues and expenditures proposed for next year’s operations. The end result is that expenditures will overrun revenue by $283,000. The budget document, as well as the monthly check listing, is available to the public at the district office. Checks written during the time period of April 28 to May 8, totaled $380,216.   

  The Board conducted a brief public hearing for budget questions/comments and will conduct another prior to their first approval of the budget in June. Notice of this hearing is to be posted at the school, county courthouse, community center and library, and in the Black Hawk and Central City post offices. The Board’s final approval must come before January 31, 2009. Members of the public can offer input up until that time at a Board meeting (held the first and third Mondays of each month) or by contacting Board members.

DAC Recommendations

  The District Accountability Committee is made up of parents, school staff and community members, represented at this meeting by Chairman Terrye Lovett and Vice Chair, Kersten Armstrong. The DAC is required by the state to address budget concerns. They told the Board that budget cuts should be made in areas that wouldn’t directly affect the students, specifically the Receptionist and the Data/Communications Coordinator positions and employee insurance costs picked up by taxpayers.

  All entrances to the school are locked during teaching hours and folks are buzzed into the building by the receptionist only through the main entrance. The DAC had researched other schools and found most did not have a paid receptionist, but were either unmanned or were monitored via a video system. There are three secretaries in the district who could rotate receptionist duties, if a body is really needed, the DAC offered, as there is a phone and computer at the receptionist desk. Cutting this position would save the District approximately $20,000 per year.

  The DAC found no other school districts of Gilpin’s size with a data/communications position. At other small schools, the same duties are done by the superintendents and/or principals. This position is costing the District around $42,000 per year.

  District taxpayers currently pick up the tab for all employee health insurance plus the insurance for administrators’ dependents. The DAC recommended all employees pay for dependents. Scharg commented that claim activity on the health insurance plan is “huge,” and that costs rose by 8% this year, to $377 per employee per month.

  The state currently reckons $9,750 as Per Pupil Operating Revenue (PPOR) for Gilpin School District next year. Scharg has adjusted that to $9,265 based on current student count. As enrollment has been declining at Gilpin for the past few years, and as each student that leaves represents a state funding loss of $9,000-$10,000, the DAC applauded all efforts to seek sources of revenue additional to state funding.  

  Finally the DAC pointed out that state regulations require the budget to be presented in a format easily read and understood by lay people. They asked that Gilpin District comply. The current document is presented in miniscule print and lumps some salaries/benefits together, divides others, and requires knowledge of school budget practices to decipher.

  Groginsky told Lovett and Armstrong, “We’ll thoroughly and earnestly consider your budget recommendations.” The Board later rejected all of the recommendations except reformatting the budget document and seeking additional revenue sources. The Board is looking at asking District taxpayers to fund a full-day kindergarten program and technology purchases with a tax increase, via mil levy, they estimate would add approximately $27 per year to taxes on a $250,000 home. That discussion will be continued at a meeting next month.

Budget Cuts

  With Yocom’s the only vote against, the Board approved cutting a half-time kindergarten teacher (Tess Engel), a full-time computer teacher (Blythe Porter), and a one-third time band teacher (Jeanne Sonnleitner). They unanimously accepted the resignation of sixth grade teacher, Olga Adrahtas and will replace her by cutting the career counselor position in the middle/high school and moving the counselor (Peggy Miller) back to teaching.

Adjournment

  An executive session requested by Ladouceur was postponed due to the late hour (11:38 p.m.). Gilpin School Board meets next on June 2^nd and then on Wednesday, June 25^th (an exception to the regular Monday meeting night). This report is abbreviated; for folks wanting the entirety, Board meetings are taped and the full four and a half hours is available for listening at the district office.