After a little bit of a break from our last meeting, the Board of Supervisors and the Citizen Budget Advisory Committee will have two meetings on two consecutive evenings. Our first was last night on March 26, 2018 and it promised to be a long one with the introduction and review of the King George County School (KGCS) Board's proposed budget. With the tension and guilt I had from the last meeting having melted away, I went into this meeting with an open mind and clear conscience.
The meeting began with a public comment from an unnamed resident of the County who spoke out against the pending protest, or assembly, by local high school students that is planned for April 20, 2018. The students are holding their protest on April 20th in honor of the anniversary of the Columbine school shooting that occurred on April 20, 1999. The gentlemen asked that the protesters not be allowed to hold their assembly and that if it was allowed, that the school host a similar assembly the day before as a "day of gun violence" that led to our nation's independence. His choice to recognize April 19th was in reference to "the shot heard round the world" on April 19, 1775 where the first battles of the American Revolution were fought in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts.
After no other members of the public came forward to speak, Angela Foroughi returned with more information as was requested at a previous meeting. In her updated presentation, she included three new counties, Westmoreland, Orange, and Culpeper, to show where they ranked along side King George and other area counties in regards to planning and zoning fees. There was some discussion about the validity of using Caroline as a template for the proposed increases in rates but in looking at population alone, it is the closest. The overall consensus was that the rates needed to at least allow the County to break even on the work being completed but there was concern over the impact increased fees may play on any future development. In the end, it was agreed to push the decision back one night, tot he next budget work session, in order to gain feedback from Ryan Gandy, Director of Economic Development.
Next on the Agenda was the KGCS budget presentation [PowerPoint file]. Having attended most of the School's budget work sessions, what struck me the most was how little they were asking for that was above what was approved last year. Even in reading the most recent article in The Free Lance-Star, I was surprised at how much was trimmed in just the past few days. In the end, the school is only asking for $303,724 in additional funds from the County over last year's request. What the school system had working for it was an increased Average Daily Membership (ADM) which allows it to get more support from the Federal and State governments. There was also a significant savings from the school system participating in an energy savings program that actually showed a negative increase, or a decrease for those of us not working in finance, in the Operations and Maintenance expense category. And that nearly one percent decrease also factored in the Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) increase for the employees in that department.
After the presentation, and a short break, everyone returned to the meeting with questions for the School Board and Dr. Benson, Superintendent of Schools. The questions were fairly precise and only a few needed to be researched for later. There was some concern, but I felt it was more likely confusion, over the Preschool Nurse position. Everyone was hesitant to speak to anything very specific because of privacy issues but generally speaking, there was a need to have the current nurse transition to a full-time teacher at the high school because the nursing program was doing so well. This meant that the half of her time she spent at the Preschool would be unmet and there was a student that did need a nurse on hand, thus the need to have an additional position. In other words, because the nurse splits time between two locations, a move to either location full-time would mean a gap in coverage at the other school.
The School Board excused themselves to another meeting room to conduct the rest of their time sensitive agenda in closed session, however T. C. Collins remained behind. There was a little stumbling as it appeared some of those present were hesitant to discuss the School budget with Collins present but Richard Granger reminded everyone that this was a public meeting and Collins was welcome to stay if he wanted to.
There were a few questions asked and answered and then the fireworks began. I don't recall the exact question posed but Jeff Bueche or Richard Granger asked Neiman Young, County Administrator, something along the lines of funding School Resource Officers (SROs). Ruby Brabo began yelling at Bueche and Granger for making "unilateral" decisions for the Board of Supervisors (BOS) and that the question wasn't right to ask.
Thus commenced several incredibly tense minutes as Brabo continued to yell at Bueche or Granger or both and several of the citizens, myself included, slowly pushed back from the table to avoid Brabo's ire. At various points Dr. Young, Granger, and John Jenkins tried to calm the argument. As things slowly cooled down, it became apparent that there was no intent to make decisions on behalf of the Board by any single Supervisor. Bueche said that he has made it plain, and public, that he ran for election with Security being one of his major platforms. To that point, he has mentioned several times in Board meetings and via his social media that he wants SROs in all schools, which would mean adding three officers, one per elementary school. Both Brabo and Renee Parker, fellow Citizen Budget Advisory Committee member, felt that his request to Dr. Young for information was an attempt to force the SROs into the budget without any public discussion.
Bueche, with Granger and Young echoing the same thing, said he was only asking for information on potential financial scenarios on four main points. Those being the three SROs in question, three County employee positions, the debt mitigation plan, and fully funding the school's request. The discussion boiled down to what I called the "best worst case scenario" of having everything funded. With the three SROs, three County employees, and a fully funded School, only $55,000 would be left for debt mitigation. This would be a massive decrease from the proposed $750,000 yearly debt mitigation. All of this is of course assuming that tax rates don't increase and the KGCS and County budgets don't change drastically with a yet-to-be-approved State budget.
So while no single scenario or combination of scenarios is mutually exclusive, fully funding everything would certainly reduce the amount of money left over to help reduce debt. But as Brabo said, any contribution made to reduce debt is more than what has been done in the past.
At the end of the evening, nearly four hours after we began, the BOS had calmed down and apologized for any outbursts. Ruby said her experiences in the past with previous Board members making unilateral decisions and putting stuff back into the budget without discussion left her sensitive to it happening again. Bueche said this was his first budget session and that he had no intention of doing anything like that and was instead looking for more information for himself to better make an educated decision. Young said he was sorry for presenting the answer in a way that made it appear he had been directed to make changes versus giving details on various scenarios. As a witness to the verbal fireworks, I was taken aback by the vehement and heated discussion but by the end of the night I felt comfortable that nobody was leaving with hurt feelings.
Also by the end of the night, the BOS agreed to fund the school's request but did ask to have Sheriff Dempsey attend the next meeting in order to discuss his thoughts on School Resource Officers in the elementary schools and potentially the Preschool.
One last interesting takeaway I had during the meeting was from my own question to everyone in the room. Of those present, only myself, John Jenkins, and Wilma Ward, Director of Finance, are products of King George County Schools. To repeat what I told Dr. Benson last night, for me personally, I've seen a great improvement in the school system over that long period of time and I'm proud to be an alumni.
The meeting began with a public comment from an unnamed resident of the County who spoke out against the pending protest, or assembly, by local high school students that is planned for April 20, 2018. The students are holding their protest on April 20th in honor of the anniversary of the Columbine school shooting that occurred on April 20, 1999. The gentlemen asked that the protesters not be allowed to hold their assembly and that if it was allowed, that the school host a similar assembly the day before as a "day of gun violence" that led to our nation's independence. His choice to recognize April 19th was in reference to "the shot heard round the world" on April 19, 1775 where the first battles of the American Revolution were fought in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts.
After no other members of the public came forward to speak, Angela Foroughi returned with more information as was requested at a previous meeting. In her updated presentation, she included three new counties, Westmoreland, Orange, and Culpeper, to show where they ranked along side King George and other area counties in regards to planning and zoning fees. There was some discussion about the validity of using Caroline as a template for the proposed increases in rates but in looking at population alone, it is the closest. The overall consensus was that the rates needed to at least allow the County to break even on the work being completed but there was concern over the impact increased fees may play on any future development. In the end, it was agreed to push the decision back one night, tot he next budget work session, in order to gain feedback from Ryan Gandy, Director of Economic Development.
Next on the Agenda was the KGCS budget presentation [PowerPoint file]. Having attended most of the School's budget work sessions, what struck me the most was how little they were asking for that was above what was approved last year. Even in reading the most recent article in The Free Lance-Star, I was surprised at how much was trimmed in just the past few days. In the end, the school is only asking for $303,724 in additional funds from the County over last year's request. What the school system had working for it was an increased Average Daily Membership (ADM) which allows it to get more support from the Federal and State governments. There was also a significant savings from the school system participating in an energy savings program that actually showed a negative increase, or a decrease for those of us not working in finance, in the Operations and Maintenance expense category. And that nearly one percent decrease also factored in the Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) increase for the employees in that department.
After the presentation, and a short break, everyone returned to the meeting with questions for the School Board and Dr. Benson, Superintendent of Schools. The questions were fairly precise and only a few needed to be researched for later. There was some concern, but I felt it was more likely confusion, over the Preschool Nurse position. Everyone was hesitant to speak to anything very specific because of privacy issues but generally speaking, there was a need to have the current nurse transition to a full-time teacher at the high school because the nursing program was doing so well. This meant that the half of her time she spent at the Preschool would be unmet and there was a student that did need a nurse on hand, thus the need to have an additional position. In other words, because the nurse splits time between two locations, a move to either location full-time would mean a gap in coverage at the other school.
The School Board excused themselves to another meeting room to conduct the rest of their time sensitive agenda in closed session, however T. C. Collins remained behind. There was a little stumbling as it appeared some of those present were hesitant to discuss the School budget with Collins present but Richard Granger reminded everyone that this was a public meeting and Collins was welcome to stay if he wanted to.
There were a few questions asked and answered and then the fireworks began. I don't recall the exact question posed but Jeff Bueche or Richard Granger asked Neiman Young, County Administrator, something along the lines of funding School Resource Officers (SROs). Ruby Brabo began yelling at Bueche and Granger for making "unilateral" decisions for the Board of Supervisors (BOS) and that the question wasn't right to ask.
Thus commenced several incredibly tense minutes as Brabo continued to yell at Bueche or Granger or both and several of the citizens, myself included, slowly pushed back from the table to avoid Brabo's ire. At various points Dr. Young, Granger, and John Jenkins tried to calm the argument. As things slowly cooled down, it became apparent that there was no intent to make decisions on behalf of the Board by any single Supervisor. Bueche said that he has made it plain, and public, that he ran for election with Security being one of his major platforms. To that point, he has mentioned several times in Board meetings and via his social media that he wants SROs in all schools, which would mean adding three officers, one per elementary school. Both Brabo and Renee Parker, fellow Citizen Budget Advisory Committee member, felt that his request to Dr. Young for information was an attempt to force the SROs into the budget without any public discussion.
Bueche, with Granger and Young echoing the same thing, said he was only asking for information on potential financial scenarios on four main points. Those being the three SROs in question, three County employee positions, the debt mitigation plan, and fully funding the school's request. The discussion boiled down to what I called the "best worst case scenario" of having everything funded. With the three SROs, three County employees, and a fully funded School, only $55,000 would be left for debt mitigation. This would be a massive decrease from the proposed $750,000 yearly debt mitigation. All of this is of course assuming that tax rates don't increase and the KGCS and County budgets don't change drastically with a yet-to-be-approved State budget.
So while no single scenario or combination of scenarios is mutually exclusive, fully funding everything would certainly reduce the amount of money left over to help reduce debt. But as Brabo said, any contribution made to reduce debt is more than what has been done in the past.
At the end of the evening, nearly four hours after we began, the BOS had calmed down and apologized for any outbursts. Ruby said her experiences in the past with previous Board members making unilateral decisions and putting stuff back into the budget without discussion left her sensitive to it happening again. Bueche said this was his first budget session and that he had no intention of doing anything like that and was instead looking for more information for himself to better make an educated decision. Young said he was sorry for presenting the answer in a way that made it appear he had been directed to make changes versus giving details on various scenarios. As a witness to the verbal fireworks, I was taken aback by the vehement and heated discussion but by the end of the night I felt comfortable that nobody was leaving with hurt feelings.
Also by the end of the night, the BOS agreed to fund the school's request but did ask to have Sheriff Dempsey attend the next meeting in order to discuss his thoughts on School Resource Officers in the elementary schools and potentially the Preschool.
One last interesting takeaway I had during the meeting was from my own question to everyone in the room. Of those present, only myself, John Jenkins, and Wilma Ward, Director of Finance, are products of King George County Schools. To repeat what I told Dr. Benson last night, for me personally, I've seen a great improvement in the school system over that long period of time and I'm proud to be an alumni.
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