Jackson school officials tightening fiscal belt

The Jackson R-2 School District continues to evaluate and adjust to its budgetary situation following the defeat of two tax initiatives in March.

The district has made approximately $500,000 in cuts this year, including about $182,000 from staff attrition. The rest was made through reducing supplies, equipment and delaying capital projects.

In addition, the district is selling farmland near Old Toll Road it had acquired in 2017 with plans of someday building a school there. The land was being leased to farmers. It is now under contract.

In 2018, then-superintendent John Link said, "our thought was, in three to five years, we may need another building. If we don't, the land will only increase in value. It could be an investment if we don't need the land."

The district is poised to cash in on that investment.

Current superintendent Scott Smith said the school district is working through selling the property, but he couldn't speak publicly about the transaction until it's completed.

In an interview following the district's "Coffee and Conversations" session Thursday morning, Smith said the district has no plans to freeze teacher wages. In the leadup to the tax initiative, the district presented numbers that its salary schedule was slipping behind several area districts and it was becoming more difficult to recruit and retain teachers.

"We are not where we need to be in compensation, so we do not feel like this is something that we can do to retain the quality teachers that we have," Smith said. "We've got some great teachers we've got to retain."

The district faces these financial difficulties as the student body continues to grow.

One of the tax initiatives, Proposition I, would have boosted teacher and staff pay. The district at the time employed 893 people, including staff and teachers, at a rate less than the state average for school districts its size.

Proposition N would have provided funding for capital projects, such as adding classrooms at the high school and building a new auditorium for music and theater performances.

Smith said the idea this year is to make financial decisions that will have as little effect on students in the classroom as possible.

"We've looked at every aspect of our district," Smith said.

Salary and hiring freezes were on the list of potential decisions the district could face if the tax initiatives failed. So far, the district has avoided taking those steps. Other options on the table, according to district documents at the time of the initiative push, were selling the farm property, closing Millersville and Gordonville elementary schools, cutting insurance and benefits and delaying Chromebook rotations.

He said by the end of the year or the first of next year, the district will have a better idea of the specific steps the district will take to meet future financial challenges. He said no decisions have been made to take another tax initiative to a vote.

"The need is still there," Smith said. "Nothing has changed. We can put Band-Aids on some things. We've made some adjustments, but ultimately the need is still there. At this time, no decision has been made (to go to voters again).

In the days following the tax defeat, Smith said in an interview that the next step would be to send out surveys. The idea was to find out what the district's constituents want and get a better understanding of why the effort failed.

"It's kind of like the vote," he said of the surveys. "They're very inconclusive. I think one thing that did stand out to me is that they still love the district and they know it's a great district and they want what's best for the district."

Meridith Pobst, chief marketing and communications director with the district, said the surveys conveyed that for some the economy was a factor in the vote.

"The economy impacted people, and I can't forecast that getting better any time soon," she said.

The district's financial situation has been eased somewhat by a pair of grants. Jackson recently received a $300,000 grant to address security measures at the district, one of the issues put before voters. Smith said the district has been and will continue to be aggressive regarding grant applications.