Student enrollment at Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. is at its lowest since 2016 after two years of modest increases.
The corporation has 11,277 students this year after a preliminary count was conducted Monday afternoon, said Chad Phillips, BCSC assistant superintendent. That reflects a decrease of 45 students from a year ago, he said.
BCSC will receive $5,548 per pupil from the Indiana Department of Education for the 2019-20 fiscal year, dating from July 2019 to June 2020, up from $5,352 per pupil last year. Those dollars make up almost 100% of the corporation’s education fund, Phillips said, which pays for employee salaries, benefits, classroom supplies and other equipment.
Phillips said a vast majority of funding for every school corporation’s education fund is based upon student enrollment.
The state disperses funding in two installments based on a corporation’s September enrollment count and another enrollment count in February. Phillips said this often hurts corporations from a funding standpoint — the fewer students, the fewer state dollars the corporation receives.
Phillips said the corporation does expect a reduction in February, accounting for about 110 fewer students. He said about half of these students are mid-year graduates who graduate in December.
Details about where these dollars will go in 2020 were laid out by Phillips on Monday during the school board’s budget hearing at Clifty Creek Elementary School.
The proposed budget includes $49.3 million in employee salaries, a 1.65% increase from the 2019 budget, and $19.3 million in benefits, including health costs, which is an 8.2% increase from this year’s budget. Salaries and benefits would make up about 97% of estimated expenditures in the education fund.
Every other area of the corporation’s education fund, including supplies, property and equipment, would likely see cuts, according to figures presented during the hearing.
“If you compare us to just eight or 10 years ago and you look at what our percentage was then, 92% or 93% and now, what’s happening is everything else is getting squeezed out of the budget,” Phillips said. “As more and more of the budget is made up of people, when there are things that happen, crises or increases in prices, the only thing that’s left when all of your budget is people, the only thing you can cut is people.”
Phillips said no corporation wants to be in a position where they must look at what people they can’t employ in order to pay for something else.
The increase in health costs is, in large part, being driven by health claims and prescription medication costs, Phillips said. Health expenses rose 14% from Jan. 1 to July 31 — the largest increase since 2016, according to figures presented during the meeting.
The overall projected 2020 school corporation budget is estimated at $117 million, a $2 million increase compared to the 2019 budget. This also includes the proposed operations budget at $19.3 million, a 5.03% increase from this year’s budget. The operations budget accounts for building acquisition, construction and improvements, maintenance, technology and other capital projects.
BCSC is doing every possible efficiency it can to save costs, Phillips said, and 97% of the budget is still people. Unless the Indiana legislature significantly changes its funding formula for Indiana schools, Phillips said it will be difficult to recover from 97% of the education fund going to salaries and benefits.
The school board is expected to consider the budget during its Oct. 21 meeting, which will be at 6:30 p.m. at Mt. Healthy Elementary School.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”By the numbers” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. September enrollment:
2019 (preliminary) – 11,277
2018 – 11,322
2017 – 11,309
2016 – 11,251
2015 – 11,251
*Rounded to the nearest whole number
[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”What’s next?” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
The Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. school board is expected to consider the budget during its Oct. 21 meeting, which will be at 6:30 p.m. at Mt. Healthy Elementary School, 12150 E. State Road 58.
[sc:pullout-text-end]
