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Wlaf1450It was learned late Wed., the $2.8 million deficit was cut to $2.1 by TISSA funding increase
TOP PHOTO: The Campbell County BOE Budget and Finance Committee met on Wednesday at 5pm to discuss the $2.1 million budget deficit the school district faces this school year.
By Charlotte Underwood
JACKSBORO, TN (WLAF)- How to overcome a $2.1 million budget shortfall was the main topic of discussion at Wednesday’s Campbell County Board of Education Budget & Finance Meeting.
Campbell County Board of Education Budget & Finance Committee members discussed options to fix the $2.1 million dollar deficit before voting to recess the meeting until a later date so “budget numbers” can be updated.
According to Director of schools Jennifer Fields, the school district received information on Wednesday around 1 pm from the county finance department that the previous deficit of $2.8 million was reduced to $2.1 by an increase in TISSA funding and with the use of equity with debt service.
Fields began Wednesday’s meeting explaining some of the reasons for the deficit, before launching into three proposals and discussion.
“There was a decrease in concentrated poverty, and some of our areas of the budget and with the increase and the equity raise for teachers, utility cost raise increase and the teacher raise, it equals a $2.1 million dollar deficit, so to offset that, I have three options and one thing to keep in mind with these options and we knew when ESSER funding ran out, we kept many of the positions, but as people retired we did not fill those positions.
The 2022-2023 budget year, 2023-2024 budget year and 2024-2025 budget year, I said both times we were keeping those positions, but I did not know how long it would last because we were able to keep them longer than I had anticipated, so now we are going to have to look at cutting some of those positions,” Fields said, adding that the reason they had not been cut in 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 was because “we moved to TISA funding.”
“From 2022-2023 to 2023-2024, our budget increased $7 million, so it was easy to continue funding these positions that were already in the budget. And we went from that year doing just fine and we operated this year with the same budget, now we’re facing a budget deficit, so I have three proposals. I do not have access to my budget to follow that these trends were occurring and that we were going to have a budget deficit; I just assumed that since we had operated two years in a row without a deficit that this year would be no different, but I have found out otherwise,” Fields said.
Fields presented three options to cover the $2.1 million deficit and explained that some of the “options did include using a part of fund balance to cover the deficit, which she had approval from the state to do so and that “many districts in the state do use it for a “one-time use” but that “does not mean that we can keep doing that, it would just be kicking this situation on down the road, but what it does prevent is for our employees to find out in a timely way if their position is going to be eliminated, and that’s why I would like to announce an option so that doesn’t happen, and we can plan beginning in August notifying teachers or people in different positions that were funded by ESSER that we were not able to maintain that,” Field said.
Board of Education Chairman Jeffrey Miller had asked the director of schools to come up with three options – “one that would fund everything, one that would restrict the most”, and one that would “meet somewhere in the middle.”
Option 1: Use Fund Balance to cover the entire budget deficit. This “proposed approach is to cover the full shortfall by utilizing the school system’s fund balance, avoiding cuts to staffing or programs for the upcoming year. This option prioritizes short-term stability while delaying structural adjustments,” according to the option 1 proposal Fields presented to the committee.
Option 2: Use committed funds and projected equity savings to balance the budget. This option proposes to fully resolve the deficit by using $1.7 million in already committed funds and $1.1 million in projected savings from the 2024-2025 budget, which will fall to equity.
“Instead of that falling to equity, that would be used to maintain the budget, that way no staffing position would be reduced,” Fields said. This strategy “avoids cuts to staffing or programs while still maintaining financial accountability.” The 1.7 million committed funding that would be used is what was “previously set aside for the sports complex at Campbell County High School”.
However, According to BOE Chair Miller, that $1.7 Million has been reduced down to closer to $1.1 million due to funds being spent on the CCHS weight room renovation and a few other projects.
Option 3: Campbell County Schools Budget Adjustments for 2025-2026.
This option proposes multiple budget cuts and adjustments including:
*Reduce 1 full time counselor and utilize existing counselor to serve multiple schools for an estimated savings of $80,000.
*Reduce 1 full time PE Teacher, utilize existing PE teacher to travel between schools for an estimated $80,000 in savings.
*Abolish the school system’s 80-day contracted person that screens for Dyslexia with responsibilities re-allocated to current staff, for estimated savings of $20,000.
*Restructure Academic Coaches, by retaining 4 system-wide positions and reallocating others for estimated savings of $400,000.
*Replace 11 interventionists with 11 teaching assistants, maintains support with reduced cost, estimated savings of $709,500.
*Abolish two part-time basic skills teaching assistants, eliminated based on comparability, for estimated savings of $32,000.
*Combine classes/implement split grades, staff reductions due to low enrollment at White Oak, Wynn and Elk Valley, estimated savings of $560,000.
“This would look at class size and based on class size with fewer than 10 students, combining those classes; when we look at enrollment and class size numbers, that would affect four classes at White Oak, one at Wynn and two at Elk Valley for a total savings of $560,000,” Fields said.
This equals a total projected savings of $1,881,500. The “additional budget strategy in this option is a projected equity savings of $1,100,00 to equal over $2.9 million.
“If we combined those savings, it would be a total of $2,981,500 which is certainly more than what we need after we found out the information we received today that we just need a $2.1 million dollar cut,” Fields said.
Richard Terry with the county finance department said it was $2.1 million after “considering the use of equity to the debt service.”
BOE member Ryan Cummins said he liked option 2.
“I like using committed funds at $1.7, that and $400,000 and we break even, that balances,” Cummins said. He also said he felt “combining classes” should be an “absolute last resort.”
“I look at teachers especially in our small schools, they are a necessity, a sports complex is a luxury,” Cummins said. He asked where to get the other $400,000 from.
Director Fields said any of the cuts/amendments could be made and pointed out that replacing the 11 interventionists with teaching assistants would save $709,500.
BOE Chairman Jeffrey Miller clarified that the $1.7 million was actually $1.1 million after the weight room renovation and smaller projects. He also suggested that the meeting be recessed until numbers could be updated.
“One other observation, any equity or committed funds that you would use just pushes it down the road. For instance, if you’re going to use a million dollars of equity or committed funds that means that millions automatically goes to next year’s deficit and starting out the new year a million dollars in the hole, now speaking with Mr. Marlow (Jeff Marlow Finance Director), we’re going to have to back up because all of this refers to $2.8 million deficit when it’s $2.1 million. At the $2.8 million figure with the inflationary cost next year, teacher raises next year that could easily be $3.5 to 4 million dollars of the deficit that we’re going to face next year, and you’ve used the equity down. In my view the only thing you have left is go bankrupt or go to the county commission to ask for a tax increase in order to balance the budget and that is likely not to happen,” Miller said.
He said, “cuts are never easy.” But the school system had more expenditures going out than revenue coming in. He suggested that the meeting be recessed until the finance director could change the $2.8 down to $2.1 and “recalculate some of the proposals and come back, because they are not accurate.”
Budget and Finance Director Crystal Creekmore said she agreed, but that she also wanted to address a “misinformation” issue.
“I don’t know which board member did it … Ryan and myself have fielded calls all day long over some misinformation, but it’s not okay to call a news outlet and present inaccurate information, especially when we just got this new information tonight,” Creekmore said.
She also said White Oak people would go to Clairfield and that Campbell County would “lose that money and not get those student dollars.” And that Elk Valley students, “many had parents that drive them to school” and that “many of them would be happy to drive them across the state line” or go to Fairview, that it wasn’t what they wanted to do, that they would “rather stay home.”
“I do know these people came to support their schools… All this was created by misinformation to the media. I don’t know if it was anyone on this committee, I’m not calling anyone out, but it was unprofessional… it has caused a lot of anxiety and upset and I love talking to my people and so does Ryan, but for them to be unnecessarily upset all day was totally uncalled for,” Creekmore said.
She also said that there were other areas that could be cut, that the school system had a decrease in students county wide, but not a decrease in staff, but she also said that she didn’t feel that the 5th district should be “targeted.”
Miller said “whoever it was that spoke on the “condition of anonymity to the media should stand up and own it as an elected official.”
“If you want to say that, then you stand up and say it, because you put this board and me in a position that is uncalled for. This is already hard enough folks, without adding a lot more to it…If I knew who it was, I would bring you forward with ethics charges with this committee because I think you violated policy and you went beyond your grounds of beyond me as being spokesperson for the board and it clearly states if you are going to make an opinion outside the board, then you have to state who you are and that it’s your opinion and yours only, we are better than this and we have to work together, I know I am emotional, this is hard stuff, this is people’s lives,” Miller said.
Cummins spoke and said he was glad to see everyone from his district, but that he “hated the circumstances.”
“I think it was a cowardly act and that has disturbed your day and my day and cost you an evening, but I said last year I will fight for the fifth and I will fight for each and every one of you.”
Discussion briefly turned back to the budget deficit.
Budget and Finance Committee member Jamie Wheeler asked if she could receive a list of central office staff and what they do.”
BOE member Randy Heatherly said he wanted the committee to look at the deficit as $2.8 million.
He said that considering it a $2.1 million deficit was a mistake and that it “was kicking a can down the road” and “not the way to run a business.”
“As far as commitments that we have already made, we have made commitments in the past based on what we felt we should do going forward in the future. I do not believe that commitments we made in the past should be considered in fixing the budget deficit and I can’t support any means of doing that and not just because that facility is at Campbell County High School, it wouldn’t matter if it was turf in Jellico,” Heatherly said.
He also clarified that not anyone at any point had mentioned any closings of schools to his knowledge.
Director Fields echoed this after the meeting and said school closures had never been an option mentioned.
Heatherly also said that CCHS generates money for the school system and that it was a “fact, and the numbers could be shared.”
“Campbell County High School may have lost a few students as other schools have, but it still generates a lot of money for this school system and athletics and sports, the correlation between the two is undeniable. The students there have a GPA of 3.0 and I cannot go back to them and tell them I am not going to support their efforts academically and athletically to succeed. And I would like to publicly share that I did not share anything with any media outlet and if I did, I would say I did it,” Heatherly said.
Cummins said he wasn’t saying the sports complex would not happen, just perhaps be postponed.
Heatherly said that spending the sports complex money to balance the budget was still passing the buck.
“It doesn’t say we will build it tomorrow, but that money has been committed; we would essentially be undoing something that is already put in place,” Heatherly said.
Miller said the sports complex project is estimated to cost $2 million and that they would still need another $800,000. He also said he agreed with Heatherly that the school should not use equity to balance the budget.
Committee members made a motion to recess the committee meeting until a later date “that will be announced in the future so the numbers can be updated.” (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-05/01/2025-6AM)