BROWNSTOWN
Negotiations allowed the Brownstown Central Community School Corp. board of school trustees to offer teachers a few incentives.
They were able to cover all health insurance premium increases, increase the number of personal days from three to five and include language to account for teacher absences involving COVID-19 for the 2020-21 school year.
Raises, however, won’t be able to be given.
Superintendent Tim Taylor said a drop in enrollment of 86 students had a drastic effect on the corporation’s education fund from which teachers are paid.
“While we would love to be in position to provide our teachers with a raise, the drop in enrollment just won’t allow it this year,” Taylor said. “Increasing the corporation contribution to their health insurance premium ensured that no one was taking home less than they did last year.”
A school corporation’s average daily membership, or corporation enrollment, is recorded in September and February.
In September, Brownstown was at 1,486 students. When this year’s budget was set last year, Assistant Superintendent Jade Peters based it on an ADM of 1,579. The actual ADM was 1,572, but by the February count, the corporation was down to 1,526.
The average of the two came to 1,548, so the new revenue number resulted in a shortfall of $153,867 for this year. Before the drop, the corporation was showing a surplus of nearly $50,000.
“That ADM number really affects us a lot when it comes to our education fund,” Peters said during a budget workshop in August.
The education fund consists of pay for teachers, aides and secretaries, school supplies, student-related technology and library expenses, and the state tuition support is based on ADM.
The other fund is operations, which consists of the salaries of administrators and maintenance, transportation and administration office personnel along with transportation, capital projects and utilities.
Peters said based on an ADM of 1,504, the corporation would lose another $87,000.
“It’s almost about $6,200 a kid for us in our formula here,” he said of how much the corporation receives per student.
A big reason the corporation’s enrollment has decreased is because the 2020 graduating class was 146 and the new kindergarten class only has 96 students. Peters projected the kindergarten class to have 111 kids.
Plus, with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, parents have either chosen to homeschool their kids or hold their child back from starting school until next year.
According to this school year’s contract, sick bank days may be used to cover days needed for a teacher’s self-care or care for family members due to COVID-19. Only this school year, a teacher can use more of the bank’s days during his or her contract than the total of their own accumulated sick leave due to the virus.
If a teacher exhausts the 10 days allotted by the U.S. Department of Labor for COVID-19 illness, he or she is eligible to apply to the sick leave bank committee for compensation for further absences from work during their current contract year.
In terms of the increase in personal leave days, any unused days may be carried over as sick leave days to be used in addition to any sick leave days accumulated or the teacher may choose to be paid the prevailing licensed substitute pay for each unused personal leave day.
Also according to the contract, the board’s health insurance contributions are $7,350 annually for a single plan and $10,300 annually for a family plan.
The Brownstown Central Classroom Teachers Association ratified the contract with the board Nov. 10.
Two special board meetings were conducted virtually to give the public opportunities to make comments on the tentative agreement of the contract. None were given during the meetings Nov. 9 and 12. All board members were present except for Clayton Beard.
The only person to ask a question was Trustee Brian Wheeler during the first special meeting.
He asked what the cost of adding two additional personal days for certified personnel would cost the corporation.
Peters said the total cost of the additional personal days for 97 certified employees will be $15,653.86. That would cover paying a substitute teacher for those days at a rate of $80.69 per day.
After no public comment was given during the second meeting, Taylor asked for approval of the tentative agreement, and that was unanimously approved.
Board President Scott Shade praised those involved in the annual contract process.
John Lawson was chairman of the committee, and he was joined by Angie Sibrel, Melanie Preston, Corey Lanier, Mendy Stahl and BCCTA President Paula Workman.
“I want to thank everyone that did participate and was on the team to get this resolution in order so that we can move forward with this ratification,” he said. “Thanks for everyone’s efforts to get to this point, and we’ll move on and try to get through this year and do the best we can, and I know everybody is doing that.”