Gallatin County School District Budget Committee
February 28, 2017 4:30 PM
Wallace Central Office Building

I. WELCOME  

II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA  

Order #2017-1374 - Motion Passed:  Motion to approve February 7, 2017 meeting minutes passed with a motion by Mrs. Connie Easton. and a second by Mrs. Myra Morgan.  
Mr. Tony Foster Sr.       Yes
Mr. Kelley Gamble         Yes
Mr. Bradley Rahe          Yes

Order #2017-1375 - Motion Passed:   Motion to approve February 14, 2017 meeting minutes passed with a motion by Mr. Brian Gognat. and a second by Mr. Brian Brentlinger.  
Mr. Tony Foster Sr.       Yes
Mr. Kelley Gamble         Yes
Mr. Bradley Rahe          Yes

III. RECAP OF COMMITTEE SUGGESTIONS  
 
Discussion: 
1.	Lights in the high school gym on at 5:30 am until 9:00-10:00pm
2.	The lights in the middle school hallway and gym on at 5 am
3.	Motion lights for the high school bathrooms
4.	Staff voiced concern about reducing temperatures and taking away space heaters but we are still running Coke machines
5.	Member spoke about Special Education Secretary positions- they are for all buildings, not just middle school.  They service all special educations teachers, speech pathologist, and occupational therapists in the district.  They make home visits, schedule meetings and handle all paperwork.
6.	Member spoke about Attendance Clerks- they have more duties than just entering attendance and to remove them from a building would take away from the office in each building. 
7.	Member asked about bus maintenance and cost of bus maintenance to dig into these budgets and see how we can save money
8.	Member spoke about Maintenance Director and Transportation Director have school vehicles they drive home.  Why do they do this, is it cost effective?  Could they could park the vehicles on school property each night?  We have one truck that stays on property and two others that leave the property each night.  The school pays for gas, tires, and insurance for all of these vehicles.  It was discussed they stay on property each night with the exception of the Transportation Director could take a truck home on bad weather months to check roads in the mornings.  

9.	A member asked that we look into what other districts pay classified directors.  They stated we have director with no degrees making more money that first year teachers with college degrees.  They would like us to check other districts and see what they pay, years of experience and what their education qualifications for classified directors are.
10.	It was a consensus that our teacher salaries are the lowest paid in OVEC.  
11.	Our teachers need more money
12.	Members ask why we have two account clerks in central office. Mr. Gamble stated one is for activity accounts and the other is for general funds, purchase orders and payments. Can one person do both jobs? No, but other districts have activity funds handled at building level. We have done that in the past.    

IV. NUCOR  
 
Discussion: 
We will send representatives to Nucor to discuss making an in lieu of tax payment. This would make it a set amount every month and easier for us to know in advance for budgeting purposes.  They are currently doing a 37 million dollar expansion.  This would help our tax rate for the first year.  If we take the 4% tax increase, we could get more tax revenue and property owner would pay less on their tax bill because the expansion from Nucor will also raise our property assessment up by about 6%.  

V. CENTRAL OFFICE SERVICES- TRAVIS HUBER, SUPERINTENDENT  
 
Discussion: 
Mr. Huber went over Central Office Flow Chart
Members ask why the board did not wait and listen to the budget committee for their recommendations and instead went ahead and made major staffing cuts.  A member asked when we needed to have budget set.  Mr. Gamble stated we have to have budget by May.
Mr. Huber discussed the possible decrease in the nickel tax from 5% to 1% that was suggested at the last board meeting. The district has 3 nickels. They can only be used for debt reduction, after debt reduction they can be moved to general funds.  We have $200,000 that is not committed and goes to our general fund to pay for salaries.  If we did this decrease, we would lose $240,000 from the general funds and all of our nickels are equalized.  This would cost us an additional $270,000 that they match for our district.  That would be a total of $510,000 loss of funds for the district.    

VI. GRANTS- STATE AND FEDERAL  

VII. ASSIGNMENT OF TASKS FOR NEXT MEETING- EXTRACURRICULAR STIPENDS, EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN STAFFING, SBDM STAFFING  
 
Discussion: 
1.	Group Dental Insurance is $57,600 for the district employees.
2.	The committee would like to investigate further on the cost of dental insurance for employees to pay their part. They would like to see how many employees actually use their dental insurance.
3.	Member suggested taking emergency days from 3 to 2
4.	Reduce $5000 for OVEC, KSBA, KASA Conference Fees
5.	Reduce $1000 for Finance registration fees
6.	Speech Contracts with Invo , they are paid hourly.  Contract costs $150,000
7.	Member ask what the cost for students to attend ILead- $90,000

VIII. NEXT MEETING DATE  
 
            Next meeting date will be March 15, 2017 at 3:30 pm

IX. ADJOURN  

_____________________________________
Chairperson

_____________________________________
Superintendent