By Andrew Walsh
awalsh@wbcowqel.com
There was good financial news at Wednesday’s Crestline school board meeting along with news not so good and news about another try at a levy.
On a night where Crestline said goodbye to couple of familiar names, Treasurer Bradd Stevens had nothing but wonderful things to say about his future former employers.
“This is absolutely the finest group of people I’ve ever had the pleasure to work for,” Stevens proclaimed. “It’s very difficult for me to leave.”
Stevens will be moving to Clear Fork schools. This district is his alma mater, where he grew up, and “A mile and a half from my house.” In short, the move is, for him, “Going home.”
However, Stevens is not immediately leaving the district. He worked out a sharing arrangement with his new employers that will allow him to work a half day at each location through June to help Crestline through the transition. He also offered to make appearances in the building after his July 1 transition, and assured that he is always just a phone call away.
The treasurer was not the only staff member heading closer to home as math teacher Lauren Sauer accepted a position closer to her family. Nick Eddleblute was ratified as her replacement. Theresa Salvati’s retirement was accepted by the board. Members expressed their regret at losing important people, but wished everyone well in their new endeavors.
Stevens also delivered the May five-year forecast. This process is done twice per school year, in October and May. Stevens outlined the logic behind his assumptions and how they differed from the ones he made in October.
Overall, his October forecasts turned out to be pretty accurate, but there was slightly better news this time around. When he made the October forecasts, he did not predict any increase in funding from Columbus, as neither the governor’s nor the House’s budgets had been discussed.
Since that time, while an official budget has not been ratified, there are strong indications that there will an increase in state funding. Stevens plugged in the somewhat conservative number of a 5-percent increase, but he is holding out optimism that it could be as high as 7.5 percent.
What this means for the district is that in October, Stevens was predicting running in the red for fiscal year 2017. The new predictions mean that running in the red should hold off until fiscal year 2018. The revenue increases and the cuts made last year have bought the district a little time, but Crestline is still spending annually more than they are bringing in.
This information comes of shortly after the failure of Crestline’s May levy. As Stevens reported, the cuts made last year have had a good short term effect, but the personnel spending is set to once again go up in the next fiscal year, as teachers advance up the step program on the wage scale. The school absolutely has to find new revenue streams.
Crestline school board president Robert Salvati indicated to Crawford County Now and Bucyrus Radio Group that the district will go back to the voters at some point.
“I’m not sure if we got the message out strong enough so that everybody understands the dire financial shape we’re in, and we’re going to work a lot harder to get that message out and try to involve more community members and teachers in the next levy campaigns,” Salvati said.