Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. members are discussing their next steps to work on a compensation plan for the referendum operating fund, starting with a meeting with the Columbus Educators Association.
Formal bargaining with teachers will begin in September, school officials said.
In January, the board will issue a Tax Anticipation Warrant for the referendum fund. This will allow the board to start spending the funds in January, although the revenue will not be collected until the tax increase takes effect in May 2021.
Assistant superintendent and director of finance Chad Phillips said that, in the fall, the board will approve a “line-item budget” of the referendum fund for the next calendar year. A report on the fund will be made to the board every six months.
The discussion was held in a strategic planning session, held virtually, with nine individuals present in the BCSC Administration Terrace Room and the rest tuning in over Zoom.
A board member questioned why, in the tentative eight-year plan, the amount spent on salary increases was set at the same amount each year ($4,444,050) while other costs were set to increase over time. Phillips explained that there certain expenditures — such as bus prices and the salaries of school resource officers, who are not employed directly by the school system — that BCSC cannot control. Therefore, school officials built about a 3% escalator into those categories each year to prepare for increased costs.
With teacher and support staff salaries, on the other hand, Phillips said that BCSC wanted to be able to commit to a certain amount each year.
“We made a commitment to the community that we would work to keep the new tax rate at or near the new baseline of $1.01 (per $100 assessed valuation,” he said. “If we had used a percentage increase for salary increases instead of a flat dollar amount, we would almost certainly need to ask taxpayers to increase the rate at the end of this eight-year period. Committing to a flat dollar amount allows us to keep our commitment to a consistent school property tax rate.”
School board president Jeff Caldwell agreed that the amount spent on certified staff and support staff salary increases should remain fixed.
“That’s the piece in my mind, that keeping trust with the community,” he said. “We said, ‘We want more property tax dollars, but this is where it’s going to go.’ Those are the pieces that I think we don’t touch. That said, the current economic situation makes everything tough. So I think we’re going to have to continue to find ways to fund everything we can. We always are trying to do more with less.”
Documents outlining BCSC’s eight-year plan for the referendum fund can be viewed at https://www.bcscschools.org/domain/720. Superintendent Jim Roberts said that it’s important for the referendum fund to maintain transparency so the community can know exactly what the funds are being used for.
