The Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District could see a funding cut of more than $2 million from the state as a result of the COVID-19 coronavirus, district Chief Financial Officer Tammie McGarr told the board of trustees at its Tuesday meeting.
The “worst-case scenario” for SOCSD is to receive 20 percent less than full funding for the 2020-21 school year, McGarr said. The district received 9 percent less than full funding last year, and the additional 11 percent would create a loss of about $2,145,000.
District officials will find out the exact appropriation amount in the state budget later this month. State legislators have warned that school districts might have to dip into their fund balances to meet all their expenses, McGarr said, and SOCSD had a balance of about $12.2 million last year.
“There are some funds this year that could be used to purchase some things that are not ongoing budget items, more like one-time purchases that people have requested from their departments,” McGarr said.
She has drafted two possible 2020-21 budgets, one based on the worst-case scenario and one based on an appropriation 6 percent lower than last year’s, or a loss of $1,345,000.
The board will discuss the budget in a work session on June 29, at which point members will have an exact number from the state as the basis for the budget. The board is required to hold a public hearing at least a week before approving the budget, which is due Aug. 15.
No matter the amount from the state, SOCSD has several cost increases on the horizon that McGarr listed for the board. The district plans to spend an additional $728,000 on teacher pay increases planned on the district’s pay scale.
The addition of the Partnership School, the new campus for grades 6-7 located at Mississippi State University, will increase the district’s utilities expenses by roughly $257,000 and add about $50,000 in property and liability insurance, McGarr said. The school is in the final phase of construction and is scheduled to open in August.
The district also expected an overall insurance increase of about $200,000 in January, McGarr said.
Finally, SOCSD will lose “a good bit” of funding from the Mississippi Adequate Education Program because the district’s average daily attendance dropped by 61.37 students this year, McGarr said. Each district in the state receives MAEP funding based on ADA multiplied by the difference between the base cost for one student’s education and the amount of that cost the district pays via property taxes.
“When you get (all) that on top of the cut to begin with, it’s not a pretty picture,” McGarr said.
Administrators will evaluate the district’s “major needs” on a case-by-case basis during the budgeting process, she said.
In other business, Superintendent Eddie Peasant described the district’s plan to reopen its buildings for the fall semester as “fluid,” since confirmed cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus continue to rise in the county and state.
Administrators are mindful of the possibility of a resurgence of the virus in the fall, Peasant said, and the district will survey parents in July to determine how many are comfortable sending their children to school in person in August and how many would prefer to continue distance learning.
“There are people who last week probably would have been fine to send their kids to school and this week might be having second thoughts because of the numbers (of cases),” Peasant said.
The district is considering a partnership with MSU’s Starkville-MSU Area Rapid Transit system to transport some students to school in the fall, since loading school buses to full capacity would encourage the spread of COVID-19, Peasant said.
Tess Vrbin was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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