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Wlaf1450The BOE needs $2.1 million in cuts before sending budget to the county finance dept. by noon, Friday
TOP PHOTO: The Campbell County Board of Education held a budget and finance committee meeting on Monday afternoon to discuss the $2.1 million deficit faced by the school district.
By Charlotte Underwood
JACKSBORO, TN (WLAF)- The Campbell County Board of Education met Monday afternoon to reconvene its recessed meeting from April 30th to discuss the $2.1 million budget deficit faced by the district this year.
After a near hour long meeting, the board approved a motion for the director of schools to rework the budget figures yet again for $2.1 million in cuts before getting those numbers over to the county finance department by the end of the week. The budget and finance committee will call another meeting sometime next week, with the date to be announced later.
Budget and Finance Committee Chair Crystal Creekmore’s motion instructed Director of Schools Jennifer Fields to “prepare a budget for the upcoming 2025-2026 year where the total proposed use of Undesignated fund balance does not exceed $1.1 million which is identified as a permissible use of Fund Balance to provide for a portion of the annual debt service requirements which have a defined ending term. It is understood that preparation of such a budget will require the director of schools to determine recurring cost reductions of approximately $2.1 million. Once the director of schools determines the recommended recurring cost reductions, such information is to be transmitted to the finance department to allow the proposed budget to be compiled in proper form for the BOE Budget and Finance committee. The director of schools is to complete this process by no later than noon on Friday, May 16, 2025.”
BOE and Budget and Finance Committee members Randy Heatherly and Sharon Ridenour voted no to this motion. Creekmore, Lisa Fields, Ryan Cummins, and Jamie Wheeler voted yes, with the motion passing.
On Monday, committee chair Creekmore opened the meeting and asked Director of Schools Jennifer Fields to report on options and solutions for the budget deficit.
Fields went back over the three options that she had first discussed at the April 30th budget and finance committee meeting. At that meeting, she had been asked to also provide a 4th option that could get as close to $2.8 million in cuts “as possible.”
“I will start out again, by reminding everyone that the expiration of ESSER funds was not a surprise, we knew that it was going to happen; that was money that was provided to us during Covid, we were in a deficit in 2022-2023, but we were able to offset that with the use of ESSER funds, but the next year, we had to move that back to general purpose and with the TISSA allocations we were able to operate two additional years beyond ESSER with providing the same services. We knew there was a time that would come to an end, and we have found out now that we are going to have to eliminate some of those positions because with the decrease in TISSA funding and the increase in equity raises required by the state, the budget is going to have to be cut $2.1 million dollars. Last meeting we discussed option 1, 2 and 3, there is also an updated option included in this,” Director Fields said, adding that “It’s never easy to cut $2.1 million because that is loss of jobs for people.”
Option 1
Option 1 balances the entire budget by using the fund balance.
“That works because it preserves all current staffing services and provides stability during a transition year and by transition year, I mean that the list of jobs provided on the back will be the jobs that are lost,” Director Fields said. This option gives employees time to apply for jobs in other school systems.
The “risk” of option 1 according to Fields is “it will significantly deplete the school district’s reserve/fund balance” and the school district “may be in the same situation next year.”
Option 2
Option 2 is to use committed funds, including the $1.1 million left in committed funds for the Campbell County High School sports complex. This option also requires $400,000 in unspent savings from the 2024-2025 budget instead of it rolling into equity.
“A lot of systems do that anyway, it’s called spend down, they agree that whatever is budgeted for the students during that fiscal year should be used to serve students that year, it shouldn’t be used to pay bills for the school district, so that’s why I listed that. Again, if we use that, it reduces dependence on one-time reserves, and keeps staff in place for this school year,” Fields said.
The “risk” of this option is that it “would leave fewer funds available for future needs.”
Option 3
Option 3 that Director Fiels proposed was to “reduce or combine small class sections where enrollment is low.”
“We did that years ago in the county, we did it for many years; I contacted TSBA, and I have the policy on split classes if the board chooses to do that. If we choose to do that, restructure staffing and review positions outside of state-generated revenue, we will save $1,881,500,” Director Fields said.
The adjustments for Option 3 would be for 11 intervention teachers going back to the classroom and being replaced by 11 educational assistants for intervention for a savings of $709,500. Director Fields said if five instructional coaches return to the classroom, that’s a savings of $400,000.
“We added during ESSER a full-time school counselor, where in the past, we had one that traveled and we would return back to that composition, as well as one P.E. teacher that was added full-time during ESSER and we would reduce that back to a traveling P.E. teacher
Those two positions would be a savings of $80,000 for each position.
Two part-time basic skills assistants were going to be cut from the budget, anyway, saving $32,000. The positions were going to be cut because the school lost the required enrollment to generate those two positions.
Under option 3, an 80-day contract for dyslexia screening would be eliminated saving $20,000.
Also under option 3, seven split classes in small classes, four at White Oak, two at Elk Valley and one at Wynn. Combining those classes would save a total of $560,000
In combining those classes, the sample model policy says the classes must be at or below average class size requirements. The classes would be 18 students, with one combined class having 20 students.
All these savings together equal $1,881,500.
Fields said even though the budget deficit was $2.1 million, that the last time the committee met, she had been asked to see if it could be cut to $2.8 million dollars.
“I can’t get to $2.8 million dollars, $2.8 million dollars closes schools, so I stopped at $2.4 million dollars,” Fields said.
Option 4
She went over Option 4, which equals $2.4 million in cuts. This option would mean additional staffing cuts at CCHS.
Option 4 would include cutting all the positions in option 3 with the additional cut of an assistant principal at CCHS, one nurse, the Maintenance foreman position, which is an $83,000 a year job, one band teacher at $80,000 that was added during Covid,
Also cut in option 4 would be one contract for truancy and mediation, as well as a special education coordinator at a salary of $100,000, a contract sports supplement would be cut for a saving of $40,000 and the school district is also switching to a different phone service provider for an estimated savings of $30,000 a year.
“If you combine Option 3 and Option 4, it would be a total savings of $2,436,500. Now, those teachers who are leaving the ESSER positions and going back to the classroom they are projected to bump or take the place of approximately eight non-tenured teachers. In cases where we can, we will move them back to the school where they originally worked before moving into the ESSER position,” Director Fields said.
The assistant principal that would be cut from Campbell County High School would be transferred to the East LaFollette Learning Academy Alternative School because that principal is retiring.
“I’m never going to say these are the best options because everything that I listed is taking a service away from our students and we cannot expect our teachers, there is only so many hours in a day and they are already overloaded, so to provide intervention and the state mandated tutoring before or after school, those are very difficult roles to fill, it is going to put a strain on everyone but you can’t dispute that we are in a deficit,” Director Fields said.
Board of Education Chairman Jeffrey Miller addressed the finance committee and said the $2.1 million deficit was really $2.8.
“On the $2.1 million budget deficit, everything that I have seen provided to me from Mr. Marlow (County finance director Jeff Marlow), the $2.1 million is $2.8 million, 2.8 is the deficit, what’s being used here, Mr. Marlow has proposed using debt service to be paid out of fund balance at about $700,000, so we’re already using $700,000 equity to get it to $2.1 million, that’s how that number is there,” Miller said.
He also said the fund balance was about $7.6 million.
He also said that the $1.7 million for the sports complex was down to $1.1 million.
“If you use the $1.1 million, unless we replenish that, there will be no gym, understand that, and it is an option. It is my hope that the committee will digest this and take a long hard look,” Miller said.
Miller also said the school district needed to “know what their fund balance had to be by law”, that there were “differing opinions on it and that after the district knew that it could move forward and try to find a solution.”
BOE member Randy Heatherly reiterated what he said on April 30th that he did not think funds committed to other projects should be used to balance the budget.
“We should not consider using funds that were committed to a community and to children, some of which are here tonight that we are going to do this… I don’t feel like it is the responsible thing to do, to use money that was committed to something else for a budget that is not working. This is $2.8 million this year and it will be far more money next year… even if we do the full $2.4, it’s not going to fix this problem,” Heatherly said. He said it was obvious the school district was going to have to make a tremendous number of cuts, but that “Campbell County High School generates the most money for the school system and that it funded the majority of projects and positions in the county.”
“Making cuts at Campbell County High School, and I know it’s in my district, but that’s not the place to make the cuts in my opinion and that’s just one opinion,” Heatherly said.
Miller spoke again, saying the voucher program was going to continue affecting the county negatively, as well as increased prices for construction projects.
“We have the tariff thing going on and any projects we do are going to be more expensive… and the voucher program is going to destroy this county… We’ve lost 68 children in the system,” Miller said.
He also cautioned the committee saying that “anything done out of equity or the committed fund” would equal a debt waiting on the school district come July.
Director Fields clarified that the budget deficit was “not a result of mismanagement or poor planning, but a result of money only goes so far.”
BOE member Randy Heatherly said the district “lost eight students last week to homeschooling.”
He suggested starting the online school which could generate funding, but said the district would need $500,000 to start the online school.
BOE member Jamie Wheeler asked how many students were lost to homeschooling total.
According to Director Fields Student transfers over the last few years total 612, with 29.7 percent transferring to other Tennessee school systems, 20.8 percent transferred out of state, 19.9 percent withdrew to homeschool or a pre-k withdraw per parent request, 15.2 percent withdrew from brick and mortar to enroll in online school, 12.7 percent students transferred to non-public schools in Tennessee and a small less than two-percent withdrew to a state facility or dropped out.
If the school district started an online school, it could generate students from anywhere in the state, according to Fields.
After discussion wound down, Finance Committee Chairman Crystal Creekmore made her motion, which instructed Director of Schools Jennifer Fields to “prepare a budget for the upcoming 2025-2026 that identifies $2.1 million in where the total proposed use of Undesignated fund balance does not exceed $1.1 million which is identified as a permissible use of Fund Balance to provide for a portion of the annual debt service requirements which have a defined ending term. It is understood that preparation of such a budget will require the director of schools to determine recurring cost reductions of approximately $2.1 million.
Board of Education member Brandon Johnson asked he could get a breakdown on what it cost to “run Campbell County High School.” Creekmore said that Finance Director Jeff Marlow had been very helpful and that any school board member could request information from him. Johnson said he would email that request.
Johnson also said he wanted to state that he could not vote for “any budget that was going to take away from Campbell County High School and that the high school funded the school district.
“We might not like these conversations, but when we look at these schools, that just based on personnel cost alone are running a deficit, we can’t long term afford these schools,” Johnson said. He also said he wanted all students to have the same opportunity and access. Johnson thanked Director Fields for “going above and beyond on working on the budget.
Board member Ryan Cummins said he wanted to reiterate that he was not against the sports complex, but that he felt it was “luxury spending and that education was the mission and the priority.”
After these final comments, the meeting adjourned. Committee chairman Creekmore will call a budget meeting at a later date. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-05/13/2025-6AM)