Having fewer special education students enrolled in Brown County schools has resulted in a loss of $225,000 for the district.
Each September, a count of students is done to determine the amount of “tuition support” the district will receive from the state. That money goes into the district’s general fund, which pays staff and teachers.
A second count is done of special education each December, and that determines how much money the district receives to provide services to special education students, Superintendent Laura Hammack explained at the school board meeting Feb. 21.
Funding for special education falls under three umbrellas: Severe disabilities, mild disabilities and communication disabilities. The severe category is funded at $9,156 per student. The mild category is funded at $2,300 and communication is funded at $500, Hammack said.
“We have less students counted under the category of ‘severe disability’ that has translated into a pretty significant drop in funding for special education,” Hammack reported to the board.
The count taken in December was for the 2018-2019 school year. “Therefore, your monthly check that you receive from the state is adjusted upon knowledge,” Hammack said.
“We have to assume the $225,000 drop February, March, April, May and June. The $225,000 is divided out over those five months less receipted into our tuition distribution.”
Hammack said it’s difficult to budget for that kind of drop because the number of students who would fall under that severe category fluctuates from year to year.
The school district has been working to cut expenses in the general fund by not filling jobs when they become available.
About this time last year, the school board voted to not replace the director of student services when Al Kosinski retired, saving the district $100,000. Job responsibilities were then split among existing employees, including Hammack and Director of Student Learning Debbie Harman.
“We’re making the right decisions, I think, but it’s going to get harder and harder,” Hammack said.
At the Feb. 21 meeting, the board approved the separation of a special education teacher at Brown County High School at the end of the year, and that job will not be filled.
Hammack said she wanted to make the board aware of their financial situation with the special education count.
“We need to address it and we will. It will be mostly done in personnel and other areas we need to cut to accommodate for that number,” she said.
“We’ll be at almost $2 million of cuts we have put into place once we get through this, and that’s a lot. But we’re still providing high quality, incredible services to boys and girls. It’s through efforts of people working really hard.”
Brown County isn’t alone in seeing a decrease in funding. Hammack said 75 percent of schools in Indiana are small, rural schools that are also experiencing declining enrollments.
“We’re in good shape. We’re responsible right now, but we have room to grow. We have to get to a place where our revenues match expenses. That’s what we need to do,” she said.
The school board and Hammack have committed to not issuing reduction in force (RIF) notices to teachers.
“That allows for folks to have a great sense of relief and stress is eliminated. Most districts in a situation like this might be kind of flirting with the idea of riffing, but since we’re not, I think it delays what could be quick financial impact,” Hammack said.
“But what you’re getting in the end is so much more profound in that folks really have that sense of peace and that stress eliminated. But it does mean when positions go naturally, we can’t break. We have to make sure we’re figuring something else out.”
