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$493,000 in shortfall to make-up if its five percent. Register
said he didn't feel comfortable with five percent on current
expense.
Commissioner Boone stated he knew the schools would rather have
more for everything, but he understood that the people that pay the
taxes would rather have more money too. In the real world, if you
take a certain amount of money, which is the higher priority in
this particular instance? This is something we need to explore.
Is it a higher priority to get a full five percent or would it be
a higher priority to apply some of this money to air conditioning
some of the buildings? The same thing in the annual capital
improvements budget -- there is a great deal of money for furniture
and technology. Do you think it's a higher priority to spend
$400,000 on this rather than to spend some portion on air
conditioning? It's a matter of priorities, and this is what I am
trying to get from you.
Chairman Long said his hypothetical answer was that the five
percent was going to be awfully tough. If the budget was cut
another two percent then all the school system would be getting is
salary increases. .,If the State goes to five percent, we'll be in
the hole again." Other school systems do things differently. This
system chooses to put the local funding dollars in the classroom.
Commissioner Boone stated there was a huge amount of money in
current expense. When the two systems merged, all of the extra
personnel the Statesville System had were thrown in the system. He
said he didn't necessarily think this was all that bad, but it's a
matter of priority.
Dr. Register said that primarily what they had done was shift a lot
of the current expense budget since merging. They have reduced
administrative costs.
Commissioner Boone said he had some question as to whether the
school system needed all the psychologists, counselors and some of
the other positions. There's some philosophical differences. Some
of these may be state mandated, but many of them are locally paid.
He said he had figured that about 628 of the local expense is
personnel cost. If you add travel, which is indirectly related,
the percentage would be more.
The county manager asked about the $1.5 million in the capital
improvements fund. He asked, if in time numerous improvements had
been made, if the schools might be able to divert some of the
capital improvement funds to meet some of the needs in the long-
range capital plan.
Dr. Register said it would take a long time before the schools
would reach this point, simply because of the age of the buildings.
When you figure maintenance costs and preventive maintenance, it's
advisable to figure about two percent of replacement cost annually
to keep up buildings. The system is really trying to keep the
buildings from deteriorating by adequately keeping them up. We are
trying to play catch up now. A replacement fund has been started
for furniture. About three years ago the kindergarten furniture
was replaced. It takes about $65,000 per year to replace furniture
per grade level. He said they had first grade children sitting in
single -slant top desks. Dr. Register said that in the elementary
grades math was taught by using "manipulatives", and that the
manipulative objects rolled off the old-style, slanted -top desks.
Thus they needed to be replaced with flat -top desks. In addition,
the desks were so scratched up the children couldn't print their
names on papers. One of the advantages of having a capital
improvements fund is that the system can do some self -budgeting.
They can look over time at what their needs are going to be. They
can anticipate improvements two and three years down the road and
know the improvements that need to be made.