Published: June 09, 2009 12:01 am      

Covington scraps original plans

COVINGTON, Ind. — In an ongoing effort to get the school corporation’s financial house in order, the Covington School Board Monday night scrapped the financial oversight committee’s changes to the original savings plan that was spearheaded by Interim Superintendent Bob Baker.

The amendments, which were discussed and approved at the May 11 board meeting, were scrapped with a 4-1 vote. Craig Dixon cast the dissenting vote

“All of us saw benefits to both (plans),” said board member Nina Wright. “It’s a hard pill to swallow no matter which one you choose. Not everybody is going to be happy with the decision but we’re trying to look out for the school corporation and do what’s best for the kids.”

The original proposal, which was presented by Baker at the April 13 board meeting, would reduce the gen-eral fund by $500,000 and the overall budget by $700,000. Among other reductions, the original savings plan cuts wages for custodians and aides to $10.50 per hour and reduces cafeteria wages to $9.50 per hour. It also cuts administrators’ salaries: the superintendent from $108,131 to $95,000, high school principal from $85,951 to $78,000, high school assistant principal reduced to $66,000, and both middle and elementary school principal reduced to $72,000. In the amended proposal, the cuts were figured as a percentage of the salary rather than a fixed amount, which left salaries slightly higher than in Baker’s original plan.

Roger Coffing, president of the board, said the board members ultimately decided to throw out the amend-ments in order to save more money. “The main reason was that it will save us $121,000 per year and right now we need to save all we can,” Coffing said. “It may save us from cutting more teachers over the next few years.”

The school board also decided to hire the consulting firm Administrator Assistance Group to develop a plan to get the school back on track. The firm is made up of retired school administrators and business professionals, and specializes in helping schools with financial problems.

“We’re not here to cast blame on anybody, we’re here to help you move forward,” said Steve Wittenauer, a spokesperson for the company. “There are solutions to this problem, it’s just going to take a little time. We hope to have a plan within the next three or four weeks.”

Wittenauer disclosed that the company charges $95 per hour, and said the contract with the Covington Community School Corporation is capped at 70 hours; any services beyond that would require renewed ap-proval by the board. So far, Administrator Assistance Group has spent 14 hours working with the board.

“We didn’t want to wait because we wanted to make sure we could make payroll,” said Wright about the de-cision to start working with the firm before the agreement was approved at Monday night’s board meeting.

Wittenauer believes 70 hours will be enough to prepare a plan, unless the school board also needs the com-pany to prepare the 2010 budget.

“The important thing that I’d like to point out is that there will be no smoke and mirrors, everything will be transparent to the public. We’re not trying to fool anybody,” Wittenauer said.

When asked what the actual deficit for the school corporation is, Coffing said the board doesn’t know yet, but will share the figures as soon as they find out. The supplemental audit that’s being conducted by the State Board of Accounts will “hopefully be done by the end of the month,” he said. The board also fielded questions about discrepancies in the pay scales for aides and responded that the board, in conjunction with the incoming superintendent, will continue to review salary levels that may be out of line. The superintendent position was just advertised and the board hopes to have some leads within a couple of weeks.

In other business, board members:

-- Accepted the resignation of Kirk Booe as incoming superintendent and high school math teacher Heather Cook.

-- Hired Amber Lydick to teach sixth- and seventh-grade science for the 2009-10 school year; Maribeth Hol-land, eighth-grade science half time for the 2009-10 school year; Melody Rowe, assistant softball coach for the 2009 season; and Trudie Dillon, executive secretary of the school board.

-- Approved elementary school and middle school book fees. Dixon noted that the book fees will remain close to average and “will not be jacked up because of the other issues we’ve had.”

-- Approved the 2009-10 middle school and high school student handbooks.

-- Accepted a bid from CDS Office Technologies for copier leases. The board may revisit this decision, as a representative from a competing bidder questioned the process used to determine the best quote.



WHAT’S NEXT

The Covington School Board will meet at 6:30 p.m. EDT July 13 at the superintendent’s office.