Published: August 05, 2009 12:57 pm      

Clarksville school officials assess flood damage

Interim superintendent sees $1 million potential shortfall in 2010 budget

As the Clarksville Community School Corp. board looks at a potential $1 million shortfall in the 2010 budget, even after previous cuts, it now faces flooding issues at four of the corporation’s five buildings.

At Tuesday night’s school board planning meeting, Interim Superintendent Kim Knott told the board about the extent of the known damage. Today, school officials plan to assess the magnitude of the damage.

So far, they know that there’s about 14 inches of water in the basement at Greenacres Elementary School, which is considered the worst off of the four effected buildings. Its already leaky roof caused more problems as the storms passed through Southern Indiana on Tuesday. Technology equipment in the basement of that school has been moved. It is not known if that is damaged yet, Knott said.

There’s about 5 inches of water in the basement of the central office building, which is where there is more technology equipment, as well as permanent employee files that are kept in fireproof, but not waterproof, filing cabinets, Knott told the board.

Clarksville Middle School has possible carpet damage caused by flooding. Likewise, Clarksville High School had water covering areas, including the art rooms and commons area, which also are carpeted.

Knott said there is an insurance cap of $50,000 for flood damage reimbursement, with a $5,000 deductible. She said she’s hoping damages are less than that, but she isn’t sure.

Knott also gave a presentation on the recommended expenditures for 2009 and 2010 and compared that to expected revenues. In 2009, $1.3 million of general fund expenditures were transferred to the rainy-day fund to make ends meet, Knott said. For 2010, those were moved back to the normal general fund, bringing the proposed grand total to $10,932,498. That’s more than $1.3 million more than what Clarksville expects to get in revenues.

That deficit is already taking into account the cost-saving moves the board has taken this year, such as teacher layoffs and administrative reorganization, which includes not hiring a permanent superintendent and having Knott, the former assistant superintendent, serve as the interim superintendent. The assistant position will remain open for now.

“Clearly we’re going to have to do something to balance the budget,” Knott said after the meeting. “We’ll just have to wait and see once school gets started.”

When school begins, the corporation will know what its enrollment is, which determines how much money the school system gets from the state.

She said then the board can decide what moves it wants to take to make up for the cash shortfall.



WAITING FOR MONEY

Meanwhile, the corporation is stuck waiting for tax bills to go out, and they say it’s not the county’s fault, rather it’s the state.

Bill Wilson, board president, said county officials have “done their job” and have submitted their preliminary assessed values to the Department of Local Government Finance for approval.

Once that has happened and those have been sent back to the county, the county can send out tax bills, Wilson said.

Knott said the DLGF has had those figures for 58 days. She said the average turnaround is 38 to 39 days.

Knott said she has been told it will be done “soon.”



ART OF TEACHING

Knott also told the board about the proposed licensing changes for teachers that Tony Bennett, state superintendent of education, recently announced.

Those ideas call for teachers to focus more on content areas, such as math and science, rather than methods of teaching.

James Bemiss, board vice president, said that causes mixed feelings for him.

“[Teaching is] a unique art form. It’s a combination of things and I don’t think we can throw out either side of that,” he said.

“That’s a little scary,” Trish Vogel, president of the teachers’ association, said of the proposed change in focus. “There’s more to teaching than imparting knowledge.”



SETTING GOALS

Knott also announced to the public the board’s new mission statement, goals and other criteria that members developed during a recent board retreat.

The board’s mission is to maximize each student’s achievement. Some of the priorities include employing effective leaders and ensuring accountability. An action plan includes improving ISTEP scores, P.L. 221 ratings, as well as attendance rates.

“This is very ambitious,” Knott said of the action plan. “We are all going to have our work cut out for us.”

• No votes were taken at the planning meeting. The board’s regular meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the middle school.