Following budget concerns from board members, Clinton City Schools superintendent Dr. Wesley Johnson went back to the drawing board to find ways he could potentially uncover more than $400,000 in savings in the system’s local budget.

When Johnson presented the proposed budget to the board during a meeting earlier this month, the proposal included freezing the staff’s supplements at the 2017-18 rate — an $86,000 savings. After board members expressed concern for the supplement freeze, Johnson explored other ways to help the system save money and protect a shrinking fund balance.

“Several tweaks were made so that it will not come out of the pockets of our staff and administration,” Johnson said. “Nobody is being rifted. This is a shift of funds.”

The new proposed budget, still includes a $408,821 savings, but leaves those supplements untouched. Items taking the largest hit include summer school and professional development, while other items, like teacher assistant funds, were shifted to other budgets.

The proposed total cut for professional development, according to Johnson, is $51,325 — $30,000 of that cut from the central office staff. The staff will continue to receive professional development, but more will be done in house on a system-wide basis.

“We can handle our professional development requirements this year,” Dr. Kelly Batts, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said. “We are doing a lot more in house. After already losing some of our professional development days due to the lost time during the hurricane, I think we will be fine.”

Summer school is taking a $110,200 cut, partially due to state changes in the retesting and remediation requirements. After already cutting instructional supply money to 80 percent of last year’s proposed amount, an additional $3,000 has been cut, taking it to 75 percent of last year’s budgeted amount.

“Another thing we wanted to do is be fiscally conservative with our board budgeting,” Johnson said. “For that reason, we are cutting $2,500 for the board’s meals.”

The original proposed fund balance appropriation was $1,187,404. After recent changes, the new proposed fund balance appropriation is $779,123 — with the total local budget proposed at $6,058,278.

“These changes don’t take any money out of the pockets of our employees,” Johnson assured the board. “Staff will continue to get a 10 percent supplement based on their current pay rate.”

According to Johnson, the largest funded item for Clinton City Schools is personnel, with nearly 92 percent of the total budget amount going to pay for salaries, insurance, retirement and hospitalization. While some of those salaries are paid from local funds, many are paid from state or federal funds.

On the heels of the recent hurricanes and damage caused in neighboring school systems, Johnson said Clinton City Schools needs to be prepared for emergency situations that could potentially arise.

“Moving forward, we have to make sure that anything we do is an essential expense,” Johnson said. “We need to get to a place where we use the fund balance for emergencies only.”

Johnson’s last proposal brought up concerns from board member Dr. Stuart Blount, who boldly said he would not approve a budget that took money from the hands of the staff by freezing supplements at the previous year’s rate.

Monday night, Blount was thanking Johnson and his staff for their hard work.

“I want to thank you for going back and sharpening the pencil,” Blount said. “This doesn’t take money from our employees.”

All budgets are on the agenda for approval at the November board meeting.

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By Kristy D. Carter

[email protected]

Proposed savings in local budget

Sign on bonuses — $20,000

Summer school — $110,200

Technology refresh — $20,000

Teacher assistants — $75,159

Professional development — $51,325

Bus driver — $5,000

Summer transportation — $3,000

Instructional supplies — $3,000

Computer software and supplies — $7,000

Dropout prevention travel — $377

Graduation supplies and materials — $2,500

Advertising — $2,800

Food purchases, board meetings — $2,500

Pension spiking — $124,000

Net benefit changes — $2,420

Total Savings — $408,281

Reach Kristy D. Carter at 910-592-8137, ext. 2588. Follow us on Twitter at @SampsonInd. Like us on Facebook.