A Divided Community Debates the Past, Present and Future of County Public Schools Funding

Tuesday’s Fiscal Year-2025 Warren County Budget Public Hearing was another face off between pro-public school staff and supporters and anti-public schools funding proponents, the latter appearing tied to religious private or home-schooling and anti-tax hike proponents. However, it was not the massive numbers showdown that occurred just over a year ago between supporters and non-supporters of Samuels Public Library when a similar funding debate occurred.

Just 11 people spoke at the public hearing, with a slim 6-5 anti-increased public schools funding majority. One surprise was that the public schools funding debate occurred in front of a largely empty public gallery space. The arguments from both sides were familiar, with anti-additional funding for public schools proponents alleging a lack of administrative transparency on funding needs and proposed operational expenditures, and a general miss-use of the local funding it does receive.

The WC Board of Supervisors prepares to hear public feedback on its FY-2025 County Budget proposal. That proposal, with another year of flat public schools funding, matches projected revenues including the first tax hikes in 5 years, at a total budget of $191,115,165, of which $81,738,434 would be committed to public schools, often cited as the county’s largest single employer. Below, it was not a packed house as the FY-25 Budget Public Hearing began at the 18:50 mark of the just under 51-minute meeting video. Royal Examiner Photos Roger Bianchini

The WC Board of Supervisors prepares to hear public feedback on its FY-2025 County Budget proposal. That proposal, with another year of flat public schools funding, matches projected revenues including the first tax hikes in 5 years, at a total budget of $191,115,165, of which $81,738,434 would be committed to public schools, often cited as the county’s largest single employer. Below, it was not a packed house as the FY-25 Budget Public Hearing began at the 18:50 mark of the just under 51-minute meeting video. Royal Examiner Photos Roger Bianchini

Public schools staff, including teachers, and supporters countered that it was, in fact, teachers, support staff, and students who would be directly harmed by a proposed flat local funding by the county government. Some pointed to lagging  student achievement standards cited by public schools critics at four of the divisions schools, as a result of a recent history of flat local funding as opposed to a missuse of available funds. Sarah Downs, a past and present vocal supporter of Warren County Public Schools, spoke to her perception of the county’s elected officials in this very regard.

An “Unacceptable Question”?

“Year after year you have the opportunity to invest in the children of our county and yet every year for four years the local funding has remained flat for Warren County Public Schools,” Downs pointedly told the supervisors, posing what she said seemed to be “an unacceptable question” from their perspective, their way: “Why have we not raised local funding to our schools in four years?” she asked of a time period that has been described as the most inflationary in America over the past 100 years.

“Absolutely, I agree with raising taxes and funding necessary services, but to not even offer a small increase in funding to account for inflation is unrealistic and unacceptable to me. I pay my taxes assuming at least some of the increase goes to the schools and yet nothing,” she said of what has been cited as the county’s largest single employer.

“In April I came to you explaining the decrease in federal funding and that decrease is large, $1.4 million dollars. This is something we estimated and yet you did not anticipate,” Downs told the supervisors. “Nothing about the future of our education system and the sustainability of the system really can be compared to a Christmas wish list … Adding a new reading specialist or a new agriculture teacher is not a Christmas list item,” Downs asserted with emphasis. “The expenses that will be cut this year will be expended eventually. The lack of funding for now will contribute to the accreditation issues, staffing shortages and more.

“A lack of investment now, is an expense with interest and inflation incurred in the future — and/or a continuation to fail to support children. And my advocacy for investing in the children of this county will not cease,” Downs assured the county’s elected officials in closing her comments with a “thank you” for the opportunity to make her case against the county budget as proposed regarding the community’s public educational system.

Sarah Downs asked if: ‘Why have we not raised local funding to our schools in four years?’ was ‘an unaskable question’ to pose to the supervisors during one of the most inflationary periods of the past 100 years in America. Below, John Lundberg circulates copies of his coming remarks against any increased funding to public schools, which opened the budget public hearing.

Counterpoint

As the public hearing’s opening speaker, John Lundberg spoke for the other side of the argument. Citing what he called “a year-long study of the cost of public education in Warren County” that he conducted in Fiscal Year-2022, Lundberg pointed to numbers he believes don’t add up to a quality educational system. He said he asked for a “single figure” for how much the public school system had allocated for in five categories for the then-coming FY-2022 budget. Those categories were: “402 teachers, 35 administrators, 298 district employees other than teachers and administrators, benefits, and non-labor costs,” Lundberg said, adding, “I was given the data I requested. Plus I was told I would be notified at the end of the Fiscal Year how much money was actually spent in these five categories. At the end of Fiscal Year-2022, I was given a detailed 48-page report.”

However, Lundberg’s perception of what he received was not favorable. “The total cost to taxpayers in FY-22, to educate 5,000 students in Warren County Public Schools — when you add mortgage payments of approximately $10 million to the District’s ‘Operating Fund expenditures’ — was $80,269,899 — an average of $16,200 per student per year,” he asserted. “That’s a mnd-boggling figure … far, far more than it cost a family to send any child to any private or parochial school in the county.”

Lundberg directed a series of critical comments at Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Chris Ballenger in his analysis of what he received regarding the FY-2022 public schools budget: “Members of the Board of Supervisors, I wish to state clearly in closing that Dr. Ballenger’s request for increased funding for next year is an outrage! Tell him to cut the cosr of public education in Warren County, not increase it. Don’t allow him to spend one penny more next year than he spent last year.”

We will reference one other speaker due to her position to ascertain budgetary impacts on teachers and support staff, and ultimately on that staff’s ability to educate the students of Warren County Public Schools.

A teacher’s perspective

“My name is Rebecca Hutson. I am co-president of the Warren County Education Association representing the teachers and staff of Warren County. I am also a resident of the Happy Creek District, an educator in Warren County Public Schools, and the parent of a Warren County Public Schools student,” Hutson said in introducing herself to the county supervisors.

“I am very concerned by the decision to provide no additional funds to Warren County Public Schools. We have heard you say that you want to support the educators of Warren County Public Schools. The best way to do that is to support the schools’ budget.

“Because of the decision to flat fund the schools, our school board has needed to cut another $2.4 million from their budget. Each building will have to function on the same amount of money as last year even though the cost of most things have gone up. Having to do this will not help or support our teachers,” Hutson asserted, noting the consequences of proposed cuts do not end there.

“Even with those measures, the school board needs to cut another $981,112. To do this they will need to eliminate three new positions. Those positions would have provided an additional agriculture teacher for our students; a reading specialist who would have helped our teachers implement the new literacy act that goes into effect next school year; and an additional elementary teacher that would have reduced class sizes and made for better teaching and learning conditions. Losing those positions is not in the best interest of the teachers or students at Warren County Public Schools. — Maybe Hutson can get together with above-cited Sarah Downs to put together a “Christmas Wish List” of needed staff. — Maybe Santa will listen if the supervisors don’t.

Rebecca Hutson, co-president of the Warren County Education Association representing teachers and other staff, made a detailed case against the staffing, salary, and other cuts totaling about $4.1 million public schools will have to implement within the flat-funding proposal on the table for a vote of approval at the Board of Supervisors June 25th meeting.

If the operational situation she was describing wasn’t bleak enough, Hutson further noted that, “Even after those positions have been cut, there is still a need to cut the budget by another $720,569. There is nowhere left to cut except for the salaries and benefits of the teachers and staff of Warren County Public Schools,” she pointed out, ending her sentence with the now-familiar refrain: “This is not in the best interest of the Warren County Public Schools teachers or staff … In fact, some teachers may actually make less money next year if these cuts take place … I implore you to reconsider your decision to flat fund the Warren County Public Schools budget … The current decision to flat fund our budget is harmful to the teachers, staff, and students of Warren County.”

The board has until its meeting of Tuesday, June 25, when a FY-25 budget vote is scheduled, to consider what it has heard regarding its coming fiscal year budget, particularly as it relates to funding of the Warren County Public Schools system.

See the linked County video for the full FY-2025 Budget Public Hearing debate of the 11 speakers granted three minutes each to make their respective cases. Following County Administrator Ed Daley’s PowerPoint budget summary begun at the 1:35 video mark, Board Chair Cheryl Cullers convenes the public hearing at the 18:50 mark of the linked 51:54 video.

Click here to watch the June 11, 2024, Warren County Board of Supervisors Meeting.