HomeMy WebLinkAboutC.054.93008_2076of the main site would go up by that amount. He feels they are in good shape until the year 2000.
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Chairman Sloan asked about the fund balance. The finance officer responded that $30,000 is
carried as their fund balance, which is required by law. They currently have about $120,000 with
$90,000 of this amount committed, the finance officer responded.
Currently the classes are coming in at around 200 students per class, which would make about
800 to 850 in high school, which is far below its capacity now. When they move out the vocational
students, that will free up eight more classrooms which would handle another 200 capacity easily,
Houston said. He said he thought this was one of the nicest buildings anywhere. It is a 1948
structure that has been well maintained with four or five additions along the way.
All the Mooresville school buildings have been air conditioned, Houston said. The major
additions at the elementary schools should give a pretty good life expectancy of the buildings.
IREDELL-STATESVILLE SCHOOLS: Mr. Alan Hix, chairman of the Iredell-Statesville School Board,
and Dr. Register, superintendent of the system, addressed the board regarding the ISS needs. Mr.
Hix expressed appreciation of attending and called attention to the budget packages presented to
each member as well as staff. Mr. Hix said they had come a long way since last year when there were
two boards for the budget hearing. A smooth transition has been made and they have been able to
establish some long range planning. The facilities plan has been completed and has been given to
the facilities committee. This is a ten-year plan to meet the needs of the school system. They
have new and inovative programs for the system that have not been possible in the past, which are
the effective schools program and the comprehensive high school program.
Hix said they are very pleased with the cooperative spirit of the teams that have been brought
together and appreciate the county commissioners' support. He deferred to Dr. Register for presen-
tation to the board.
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Dr. Register said it was a pleasure to be here for his first time. A copy of the budget was
distributed last week to the county commissioners. The current expense budget has two parts:
continuation budget and the expansion budget. You will find the expansion budget is virtually the
same as what Mooresville requested, which is a 9% increase. They have included the 6% state salary
increase. The loss of utilities funds is a revenue that amounts to approximately $300,000. This is
the lost of approximately 12 teaching positions.
In the continuation budget there adjustments for classified staff, which are secretaries,
custodial staff, and maintenance staff. This is a result of merger and they are requesting a 9%
increase in the expansion budget.
The Program Expansion Budget is the new programs. They are requesting nine additional
counselors to serve K-12. They have 26 at the present time, which would be a ratio of 1 to 400,
which is what the state recommends, although they don't fund to this level. They believe this is
definitely a need.
They are requesting 25 additional classroom teaching positions. Eight are planned for elemen-
tary schools to help with class size and organization. In the middle schools, nine additional
classroom positions are being requested to implement the middle school program. These are academic
positions for the academic teams in the middle schools.
In the high schools eight additional positions are being requested for academic instruction.
They are working with a comprehensive program in high school which includes an expanded day, a
tutorial program, and a number of other programs that are very important. Four para -professional
positions are being requested.
Additional local funding is being requested for transportation. This is one of the major
programs. They cannot recruit the people to drive the buses. They are looking at strategies such
as combination jobs. They are proposing safe driving bonus. There are no substitute drivers,and
principals or teachers drive when a bus driver is out. Twenty monitors will be added to the buses
at $4.25 per hour.
$275,000 is requested for construction materials, supplies, and equipment for a media
technology plan. They have a comprehensive technology program that has been developed, and this is
the first year to begin implementation of this. They feel they are behind in technology in schools
and in Iredell-Statesville Schools, and this should be addressed.
A salary supplement increase of 4.25% from 4% with a dental program or 4.5%.
The total expansion budget is $1.5 million. We have reduced that by one-half million dollars
to a 12% increase. The reduction is based on a transfer of funds. In the past a number of facility
improvements have been funded through current expense budget. This is not the appropriate way to do
that, and they are recommending that an annual capital improvements plan be implemented as a part of
the capital outlay budget, so this is the reduction that we would benefit from as we remove part of
this funding from current to capital.
As a general introduction the
facilities of the Iredell-Statesville Schools generally need
improvement. The facilities are not
in good shape. In his opinion, the facilities are
inadequate
for the boys and girls in the school
system, Register said.
There are three basis of information
for the school facility improvement program.
These are
the merger plan which addressed the needs to a large extent. A facilities study committee
which has
been appointed and is functioning at
the present time to develop ten-year and five-year
strategic