Making progress : Decatur, Greenland improve, but annexation still possible
Posted on Tuesday, October 14, 2008
LITTLE ROCK - Arkansas State Board of Education members said Monday they like what they hear so far about the Greenland and Decatur school district's financial situations, but the districts need to continue to make progress to avoid future annexation.
Both school districts provided their first quarterly reports to the Arkansas State Board of Education Monday to demonstrate how they are working to become financially solvent.
The state took control of Greenland's and Decatur's operations in July. The takeover was an alternative to annexing each of the districts into one of their neighboring districts. By dissolving the local school boards and having the state take control, the districts were able to remain in tact.
While encouraged with recent progress, board members agreed that neither district is out of the woods in regard to possibly facing annexation into another district or having its coverage area split among more than one nearby district. (For a more complete discussion regarding possible future annexations see the multidistrict annexation story on this page. )
"The two districts are very different, but it's hard at this point to take any option off the table," said board Chairman Randy Lawson, of Bentonville.
In late July, Roland Smith, retired Rogers superintendent, was hired to oversee the Greenland district. A couple of weeks later, retired Gravette superintendent Leroy Ortman was hired to oversee Decatur. Both men report to Ken James, education commissioner at the Arkansas Department of Education.
As part of the takeover agreement, both districts were ordered to provide quarterly reports to the state board regarding their progress. If either district fails to become financially solvent within two years, the state board will be forced to annex that district. However, an annexation can be ordered at any time during that two-year process if adequate progress is not being reached.
Smith, during his report on Greenland, said that enrollment will be vital. He is cautiously optimistic about the district's future. He provided information about Greenland's improving academic status, but the focus of the report was on the improving finances.
The district was initially expected to have a negative $ 427, 845 balance at the end of this fiscal year. After a wide range of cost-saving measures under Smith's leadership, the district now expects to have a $ 137, 845 balance - on the positive side. That doesn't include, he added, the approximately $ 56, 000 in donations from the community. It also doesn't include an additional $ 1 million in bond money that is expected and will be used for items such as refurbishing buildings and purchasing school buses, etc.
Smith said during a break from the board meeting that part of his job to make sure that the district continues to improve both financially and academically, while maintaining a good student enrollment.
"My role is to see that we can operate a small school district with increasingly good achievement and balanced finances," he said.
The report from Decatur, which had the more dire financial situation initially, indicated that while far from being where it should be, the district has made great strides in the right direction.
"A lot has been accomplished during this process," said Bill Goff, assistant education commissioner for finance and administration.
The district had initially been predicted to end the next fiscal year with a more than $ 600, 000 deficit but with many changes that have been made under Ortman's leadership, that figure has been changed to an ending balance of more than $ 278, 000 in the black and the end of the fiscal year. Ortman agreed he would like to see a much higher balance but that he is pleased that all the bills are now current and there is a positive balance in the district's bank account.
"This budget will work barring (a disaster )," he said.
The board members asked several follow-up questions including about athletics funding and about enrollment. Decatur's enrollment dipped when worries that the district would be annexed were running rampant. Ortman said that if the state starts making preliminary plans again to annex the district, it would cause the same problem all over again.
James agreed that for both districts, maintaining enrollment numbers will be vital to their existence because the state pays the schools on a per-student basis.
"They are nowhere near out of the woods," he said. "If they continue to lose students, they will lose money. That's why they have to come back every three months."
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