According to district officials, this purchase will be paid in annual increments over the next three years, with a payment of $229,652.34 in the first year; $229,652.34 in year two; and $663,243.21 in year three.
The modular unit will allow for the reconfiguration of Helke Elementary, Demmitt Elementary, and Smith, officials say, by accommodating an additional grade level at Smith.
Beginning with the 2024-25 school year, all preschool and kindergarten classes will be held at Helke, first and second grades at Demmitt, and third, fourth, and fifth grades will be held at Smith.
This option, documents show, is projected to yield an additional $292,000 in savings annually via the reduction of one additional teaching position, one school safety officer, one nine-month secretary, and one aide position, as well as the elimination of the district’s preschool rental lease with First Light Church, which alone amounts to around $75,000 annually.
The annual payment for the modular unit is offset by the predicted cost savings that the reconfiguration allows, according to Superintendent Rob O’Leary.
Additionally, board officials noted, all-day kindergarten would not be feasible if not for the modular unit installation and reconfiguration plan.
“We’d never had many discussions about implementing all-day kindergarten because we didn’t have the space to do it, but now with this reconfiguration, we will,” O’Leary said.
Implementing all-day kindergarten will cost the district more because of an increase in staff, but the district is also set to receive more in state funding.
Treasurer Eric Beavers said in the state’s funding formula, the number of students is based on full-time attendance, so each Vandalia-Butler kindergartener currently counts as 0.5, due to the half-day distinction. The change to full-day will count each student as 1.0, with the full funding increase phased in over three years.
“The benefit is that we will receive some funding right away, which will help offset the cost of adding additional staff to teach full day kindergarten,” the district said in an email this week.
Beavers noted this increase would lower the district’s composite per-pupil wealth, which relies on property values and resident income to determine the state’s share in funding.
“That wealth factor comes into play because (the state) takes our valuation and spreads that capacity over each student, so as you have fewer students, your (calculated) wealth is that much higher,” Beavers said.
Higher wealth capacity generally means less funding from the state.
These planned changes to the school’s structure follow two failed tax levy attempts and related budget cuts.
After failing to pass an additional 1% income tax in May, the district cut seven teaching positions and declined to replace 10 teaching aide positions left vacant from retirements and resignations, reduced administrative staff via retirement, brought the technology department in-house a year earlier than anticipated (it was previously a contracted service) and reduced $100,000 in supplemental contracts.
In November, the district again asked voters to approve a levy, this time a 4-mill property tax, which was again rejected. The school board subsequently approved an additional $1.2 million in cuts, starting with the 2024-25 school year, which will include the reconfiguration and a subsequent reduction in staffing.
Despite the cuts and reconfiguration, voters may be asked yet again to approve a levy this year.
The district’s website shows the board is expected to make necessary resolutions by August regarding any potential levy request that may be placed on the ballot in November. There is no tax levy request in the March election.
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