by Garrick A Moritz, Gazette
The Garretson School Board met in regular session on March 8, 2021 at 5:45 p.m. at the Garretson School Library. The major topic of this month’s meeting was the school passing a $350,000 tax opt-out resolution. A large public presentation has been scheduled for Tuesday, March 23, 2021 at 7:00 p.m. in the new gym, with a short presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. The public vote on the opt out measure will be held in a special election on Tuesday, May 11, 2021.
The meeting started with the regular approval of the consent agenda, paying bills and approving quotes for fuel and approving the financial reports.
The first item of business was an exception to the community use of school facilities policy which normally restricts activities being held at the school from being for profit events. However, the annual summer sports camps that the school has hosted have regularly gotten exempted from this rule via a board vote, and this exception for a volleyball summer camp was no different, with Rachel Hanisch abstaining from the vote.
Next the board assigned members to attend each of the local equalization meetings of Garretson, Sherman, Palisades Township, Edison Township, and Highland Township.
At this time, Supt. Guy Johnson and Business Manager Jacob Schweitzer gave the board a briefing on the proposed tax opt-out resolution discussed at the last board meeting.
Five years ago, the school was facing a potentially school-closing deficit. Substantially more funds were going out than coming in, and the Garretson School Board requested to pass a $500,000 per year opt-out measure to turn the school back around. When the school received permission from the voters to go ahead with the tax increase, they promised to do their best to reduce costs and asked the community to do its best to grow. The five years are now up, and while there have been promising signs in the right direction, a potential deficit still remains.
Back in 2016, the school was deficit spending at a rate that the administration did not feel was sustainable. At that time, they passed a tax opt out measure for $500,000 per year for five years to support the general fund balance.
The school’s general fund is comprised from a mix of local, state and federal revenue sources. The tax levies are set by the state, and the state regulates how much can be maintained in the school’s general fund balance.
State monies are determined by a complicated per-student formula that determines how many teachers the school should have based on the number of students enrolled determined by an annual count that is taken in October.
The General Fund’s purpose is to pay for the operational costs and personnel of the district. This translates to payroll for staff and school programs. The state legislature both sets the taxation cap for the General Fund and also controls how much money the school can keep in its coffers year to year.
District enrollment since 2016 increased for the first four years, but dropped off in 2020. Enrollment in 2016 was 463 students. In 2017, that increased to 477, 480 in 2018, and 494.8 in 2019. However, 2020 saw a drop of nearly all gains, with an enrollment of 465.3 students.
That drop in students has rallied, with the school district reporting a current enrollment of 477 students, but that won't count towards next year's budget.
Over the past five years. the school has made a concerted effort both to reduce costs and promote enrollment in the district, but progress has been slow. The school changed many of its maintenance practices to be self-sufficient and contracted its food services in order to operate at a balanced budget, rather than operating at a consistent loss.
The community has made an effort, as well. A new housing development was created, new homes and apartments have been constructed in the community, and Blue Dragon Academy completed construction of a new childcare and educational facility.
Along with declining enrollment in 2016, the school was also dealing with an issue of a bond repayment from construction projects back in 2004.
Such debt is recouped by tax levy equally across all property types, and two years ago the school’s bond debts were paid off in full, a year ahead of schedule. This resulted in an overall tax reduction, and though the school had passed the opt out for $500,000 per year, for the last two years the board has opted to take a lesser amount of $350,000.
Which is why, at this past meeting, the board opted to set this new opt out at a maximum of $350,000 for the next five years. If this is ratified by vote of the district constituents, taxes will remain steady at current rates or further decrease.
Supt. Johnson said that currently about 43 percent of all schools in South Dakota pass such opt-out resolutions, and that it does not seem to be limited to small schools like Garretson, or big schools like the Sioux Falls School District. The problem, it seems, is the state laws as written. Traditionally in South Dakota, the legislature has not been a friend to local school districts and for the last fifty-plus years, their desire and policy has been for districts to close and consolidate to save money, despite the fact that studies have shown that smaller class sizes and learning environments are more beneficial to students, and to taxpayers in the long haul.
With all this in mind the Administration team recommended passage a new $350,000 tax opt-out measure. A public meeting with a question-and-answer session will be held on March 23 at 7 p.m. at the new gym and a public vote on May 11, 2021 on this opt-out measure has been scheduled.
Board President Shannon Nordstrom said that the district is not obligated to take all of the $350,000. He pointed out that as the numbers look right now, they probably won’t be taking that full amount for the next two years. And even if they do take the full amount at budget time, taxes will not increase from their current rates. If the board does not take the full opt-out amount, they will decrease.
With one-time monies from the state and COVID relief funds, the district is in pretty good shape financially right now, Nordstrom said, but the district needs to realistically look to the future to a time when those monies might not be forthcoming.
“I’m happy with the work we’ve done so far,” Nordstrom said. “In 2016 we were on the verge of a potential crisis and our people stepped up to support us. This is just a continuation of that process.
"We are still deficit spending, but we’re in a much better position now than we were back in 2016 and we’ve made discernable progress toward those goals. We’re not done yet, but we’ve continued to make progress and we’ve been honest with our taxpayers about how we’re spending their money and we’ve not been doing anything extravagant, we’ve been focused on our goals and been responsible with our general fund budget. Taxes will not increase, and for our first few years of this new opt out, the board may choose not to utilize any of the opt out funds at all, which means a potential tax break.”
“I also want to state for the record that we will never do an opt out like this without bringing it to a public vote. If we are asking people for their money, then we are asking for their support at the ballot box. Other districts have tried to pass these opt outs without holding a public vote, I suppose hoping that nobody would notice, and that has not ended well for them. We want a public vote and we ask for our constituents to continue to support us.”
The opt out resolution passed with all present members voting in favor. Board member Tony Martens was absent for the meeting and the vote, but with all other members voting in favor the board has satisfied the legal requirement of a 2/3 majority vote needed to pass the tax opt-out. Now the measure will need to be ratified by public vote.
Supt. Johnson said that the Administration team would be meeting to determine how to host a public meeting and presentation about the opt-out in safety, especially in light of the ongoing threat of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Next the board reviewed a few policy items. They had initial discussions with Principals Chris Long and Teresa Hulscher on handbook revisions, as well as how to handle the policies on student iPad use. The Administration also recommended that the child abuse policies be changed to allow the school guidance counselor to be able to report child abuse directly to authorities, whereas the old policy required the principals or superintendent to do so after being consulted. Supt. Johnson said that policy was outdated and unnecessary as the school counselor is the only party needed to make that decision, and that is already the practice they engage in, so he recommended that this policy be changed to reflect reality.
Policy revisions to get a first reading were the special uses of school busses and staff, to more effectively allow for community events and groups to use the schools bus services. As an example, he used the bussing of people to the Movies in the Park events from downtown Garretson to the park proper. Again, it’s a policy reflecting practices-in-place measure.
Next in first readings was a revision and deletion of reproduction of copyrighted materials causation, to clarify and streamline what is copyrighted and what can be utilized under free and fair usage for educational purposes. This clarified the main policy so that a secondary policy could be simply deleted.
The board had a second reading, and then voted to pass, the revisions for bus driver examination and drug and alcohol testing and information for bus drivers. Though South Dakota voters have passed both recreational and medical marijuana legislation, the school is still maintaining a zero-tolerance policy on marijuana use by staff, and of course alcohol and bus driving is a combination that always been, and will continue to be, forbidden.
Supt. Johnson then gave his report to the board. First, he reported that no current board members have submitted petitions for board seats and no prospective candidate for said seats have filed. If anyone had filed, they would have won seats without contest. As is, the board will have to seek appointments for both seats. The appointed seats will be for single year terms, after which the seats will go back through the election cycle process.
Board president Nordstrom asked all present if they knew anyone who would be willing to serve on the School Board, to send them to him.
Supt. Johnson said that many staff had already gotten a COVID-19 vaccine and that more would be getting one at a shot clinic that Avera was hosting in the school building that Friday, March 12. The second dose would be administered in early April.
Supt. Johnson noted that All-State Chorus for this school year has officially been canceled. The South Dakota High School Activities Association could simply find no way to host a thousand of the state’s best high school singers from across the state together in safety. The State Orchestra will still host a music event, but with limited access, social distance and safety measures in place.
Likewise, the student music trip to Chicago has also been canceled for safety and will postpone for one more year.
Supt. Johnson talked about last minute legislation, starting with SB 177, the Home School Bill. He said that essentially this bill loosens up the requirements of home-schooling requirements as far as what homeschooled students are required to do and requires school districts to allow homeschool students to participate in fine arts and athletic events should they choose to do so. Supt. Johnson said that this should not have much an effect locally, but was harshly critical about the measure, saying that it was a recipe for creating school drop outs statewide, and was another unfunded mandate, making the schools shoulder providing the students services without a funding structure in place.
Board President Nordstrom also mentioned the so-called transgender bill, HB 1217, which supposedly promotes fairness in girls' sports. The original bill was killed in the Senate Health and Human services committee, but then was resurrected and passed. Governor Kristi Noem now intends to sign it.
Nordstrom wondered what that would cost the district. Supt. Johnson said that he didn’t anticipate any problems locally, but that any issues would be “handled in civil manner that respects the dignity of all involved.” Johnson commented that the bill in question was a “solution in search of a problem” and that it would likely face legal challenges down the road. Similar measures passed in other states such as Idaho were struck down by federal courts as unconstitutional.
Supt. Johnson also noted that the school recently conducted a lockdown drill. As part of that exercise, the Minnehaha County Sheriff’s department had their K-9 drug unit patrol the halls, and had zero hits.
“I do not doubt that some of our students use alcohol or illegal drugs,” he said. “In fact in many of the surveys we have issued to them, they have said as much. However, it is clear that none of it was in their lockers, so I will take that for what it is.”
Business Manager Jacob Schweitzer gave a full report on the current state of the general fund, and currently the school has spent about 93.1 percent of the current budget. He said that there are no surprises or startling expenditures. Maintenance is overbudget, but with COVID-19 and cleaning precautions being what they are, he said he very much expected that to be the case.
Supt. Johnson then reviewed Title 9 laws and regulations, and the revisions that will affect the school. More awareness and training of staff will be required than ever before on crimes of a sexual nature and sexual harassment and will require multiple policy revisions for the district.
Supt. Johnson said that the baseball field sale negotiations to the City of Garretson are still on hold. Johnson had no updates, and board member Ruth Sarar reported that the only business from the Prairie Lakes Coop was approval of contracts for the Coop councilors' staff.
The board then entered executive session for a personnel matter and contract negotiations.
