VWCS board hears financial information

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The Van Wert City Board of Education heard mostly positive financial news from Treasurer Mike Ruen, as well as curriculum and testing issues from Assistant to the Superintendent Bill Clifton during its October meeting on Wednesday.

Ruen talked primarily about the district’s five-year forecast, which he said showed a positive balance of $257,656 in 2020, the final year of the forecast. That contrasts with forecasts the last few years that showed a deficit at the end of the five-year period.

“My approach is try to be conservative, but at the same time be as realistic as I feel comfortable going forward with the forecast,” Ruen noted.

The treasurer first talked about tax revenues, noting that the district should see an increase in tax revenues during the forecast, largely because the district is now below the 20-mill threshold. Ruen did note that the district’s income tax revenues are down a bit this year over the past two years, with 2014 being a record year for income tax revenues in the district.

Meanwhile, the treasurer said most of the uncertainty related to the forecast comes from state revenue estimates, which Ruen said were, at best, projections based on numbers released by the state.

The treasurer did note that personal property taxes have decreased from about $1 million a few years ago to zero next year, because of the legislature’s action to do away with tangible personal property taxes.

On the expense side, Ruen said district employees would be paying more of their health insurance costs, while spouses who have insurance available at their employer cannot be placed on the district’s health insurance.

“So that is going to save some premium costs for the district,” Ruen said, noting that the district did receive a 10-percent increase in health insurance premiums through the Van Wert Area Schools Insurance Groups.

The treasurer also talked about one of the primary financial concerns of the district: outgoing open enrollment. Ruen noted that students leaving the district for another district through open enrollment.

“One of our nemesis that we’ve talked about now for many years,” he said of the situation.

Between actual open enrollment and excess costs associated with the loss of the students, Ruen estimated that the district would lose approximately $2.8 million in the coming year.

On the positive side, several tax abatement agreements will end during the forecast period, which should bring in additional dollars in the future.

Clifton talked about a recent meeting of curriculum coordinators from Van Wert and Paulding counties he attended, noting that the meeting was interesting and educational, while briefly reporting on district and building leadership team meetings and upcoming student testing.

Clifton also reported on the next Technology Summit being held in June 2016 at Vantage Career Center, noting that the first summit held this year was well attended, with 200 people attending — double what had been expected by organizers.

Superintendent Ken Amstutz talked about a contract on the agenda for the Family Resource Center, noting that the contract would give the district access to the kind of behavioral health services it needs to provide for students. Noting that school counselors are basically just teachers with a little additional training, Amstutz said they can’t deal with the kind of problems some students are dealing with.

The superintendent also talked about teaching students to better interact with businesses, noting he feels the district is on the right track when it comes to providing the kinds of skills students need to further their careers, but just needs to continue to expand and perfect current programs.

In personnel items, the board accepted the resignation of Laurie Piper as assistant to the technology director, hired Sara Bauer as a paraprofessional.

In other action, the board:

• Accepted the following donations: $5,000 from the Cooper Family Foundation, within the Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund, for a senior project related to Blessings in a Backpack; $100 from Jeffery-Mohr Dentistry Inc. for the Van Wert High School journalism class.
• Approved the following supplemental contracts: MacKenzie Ray as high school basketball cheerleading coach and Bob Sloan as a VWHS Building Leadership Team member. Andrea Mead was approved as a volunteer high school girls’ basketball coach for the current school year.

The next meeting of the Van Wert City Board of Education will be at 5 p.m. Wednesday, November 18, in the First Federal Lecture Hall of the Niswonger Performing Arts Center of Northwest Ohio.