Despite many challenges, more than two dozen Brown County adults have earned their high school equivalencies since last summer with the help of the Career Resource Center of Brown County.
From July 2019 to June 2020, 27 people graduated from the adult basic education program, Director Christy Wrightsman told the Brown County Schools Board of Trustees on Nov. 19.
For program year 2019-2020, the CRC had 72 people enrolled in the adult education program. “Just to give you a little idea there, our goal was to have 27 people. We really exceeded that,” Wrightsman said.
For the current, 2020-2021 program year, the CRC has 38 people enrolled in the program with eight graduates so far, which puts the CRC on target with regional goals, Wrightsman said.
“We’re over 50 percent of where our goal should be so far. We feel pretty good about the fact that we are still making gains and progressing as we need to, to meet our goals in 2020-2021,” she said.
The school board also approved the CRC’s budget for 2021 at the Nov. 19 meeting. It included over $200,000 in decreased expenses due to a reduction in personnel, salary and benefits over the past year.
But the CRC is not cutting back on providing opportunities to help people further their education and careers. That’s a main goal of the organization.
“The individual benefits provided by the CRC become a cumulative benefit for the community as a whole, both economically and through inter-generational transfers,” the mission statement says.
“This is what we are working towards every single day at the CRC,” Wrightsman said.
One of the performance indicators CRC leaders have been working on is that the CRC will meet or exceed all regionally determined adult education professional development goals.
“I am so happy to report that we have been doing that,” Wrightsman said.
Another performance indicator is for the CRC to help students in grades kindergarten through 12 get ready for college and careers.
The CRC currently offers medical certification programs and plans to add more next year with a possible partnership with Vincennes University.
Wrightsman said these programs help meet the CRC’s goals by getting students further training past their senior year of high school, enabling them to earn credentials and certifications to get jobs.
“We want to continue to increase those programs and allow the building of that bridge between our local high school and the CRC,” she said.
Wrightsman also worked with Brown County High School Principal Matt Stark to offer the Governor’s Work Ethic Certificate program to eligible seniors. Last school year, 15 seniors received the certificate from Gov. Eric Holcomb, recognizing that they have the skills necessary to be successful at work or college after they graduate.
The CRC also offers a popular electrical program, where students learn to become master electricians. That program is also seeing an increase in popularly, with 19 students in the 2019-2020 cohort.
Another performance indicator for the CRC is to provide career coaching that will help people make a plan for employment, earning credentials or developing skills to help them get jobs. To check off that indicator, the CRC will soon have a Work One career coach and workforce adviser working in the building full-time.
The grant the CRC receives to offer jail education in Brown County allows the CRC to provide a career coach to help the inmates with their plans for employment, credential attainment and the development of employability skills.
The CRC received $20,000 in grant funding to offer the jail program, which helps check off the fifth key performance indicator: Building community awareness of resources and services, Wrightsman explained.
The program also meets the first indicator aimed at meeting adult education goals.
Making sure the community knows that the CRC is open to the public is another way to meet the fifth key performance indicator, which is done through marketing campaigns in this newspaper.
“We found out a lot of people did not quite know what we do at here at the CRC and that we are here and that we are supported by our community members,” Wrightsman said.
“We’re here for them. We serve the community. We are open and it is public for people to come in.”
The CRC’s budget is partially funded by a referendum on local property taxes that has now been approved twice by voters.
“It is absolutely our intention and our responsibility to share what we have to offer our community and what our community is supporting through the referendum dollars each year,” she said.
Budget breakdown
A third way the CRC plans to track meeting its goal of being the community’s educational hub is by reconfiguring the annual budget, grants and charitable contributions to sustain itself.
For 2021, revenue for the CRC is projected to be $306,991 with $175,050 projected in expenses.
The CRC brings in $137,000 from the referendum. In May 2016, voters approved adding 8 cents per $100 of assessed value to the property tax rate in May 2016. That lasts for seven years. A penny of the 8 cents goes to the CRC each year. The remaining money from the referendum pays for teacher raises.
“Without this referendum, this work is not possible. It’s just so important we keep sending the message to the community of thanks and how much we value their support over and over again for the coming years when a new referendum will come around,” Wrightsman said.
During her budget presentation, Wrightsman thanked the board and Superintendent Laura Hammack for supporting the CRC, including allowing them to hire a certified teacher to work in th ebuilding.
“Even in a difficult time financially, you have taken the CRC and you have really allowed us to flourish, you have allowed us to feel value. … We’re going to be able to continue into the future with some sustainability here,” she said.
Interest on the CRC’s investments is expected to decrease $2,500 from this year due to the pandemic, along with not yet known decreases in endowments through the Brown County Community Foundation.
Student fees will remain the same for 2021, at $30,000 in revenue projected. Wrightsman also plans to maintain the $10,000 increase to the CRC’s grant line after receiving a total of $20,000 in grant funding this year.
Because of the increased number of adults receiving their high school equivalencies, the CRC is projecting a small increase in the adult education revenue line next year, at $52,491.
In 2018, the school district received a $500,000 Ready Schools grant from the Regional Opportunities Initiative Inc. Part of that grant funding went to the CRC, but that funding will run out next year.
The biggest cut in the CRC’s expenses was in the salary and benefits line due to in part the school district funding the certified teacher at the CRC and covering 50 percent of Wrightsman’s salary.
To help spread the message of the CRC being an educational hub for everyone in the community, the marketing expenses line was increased by $4,000, which was the biggest increase in expenses for 2021.
Overall, the CRC’s expenses were cut over $200,000.
“That was best CRC budget proposal I’ve seen in 10 years,” school board member Steve Miller told Wrightsman.
Hammack said showing the intent of the penny from the referendum is important. “(It’s) wonderful to watch them (the CRC) be great stewards of those resources. We’re super grateful,” she said.
