On Monday, May 19, the Kingsland School Board began their night with a special meeting to review the resolution canvassing the return of votes for the May 12 referendum vote.
In 2024, voters approved question one from the district referendum, which dealt with $8.9 million worth of physical facility needs.
Question two on that ballot failed. This question dealt with the creation of additional space for physical education, community education and flexible, multipurpose programming at an estimated cost of $11.5 million.
On Tuesday, May 14 a total of 1,306 voters turned out with 623 voting to approve the referendum and 683 voting against.
Though the results weren’t what they hoped, the resolution for the canvassing of the return votes was approved.
The board then turned their attention to the work voters did approve in the first referendum.
According to Superintendent Scott Klavetter, the maintenance work on the roof will begin after graduation.
“They will probably spend that first week just getting themselves set up. Their plan is to start above the cafeteria and kitchen area then work their way counter clockwise around the building,” Klavetter said. “A couple of interesting things with that, the roofer’s insurance says they are not allowed to tear off any roofing if there is more than a 30% chance of rain. So they have said they will put together a tentative calendar, but we will meet every Thursday for updates. If it is a dry summer we could be done by the first week in August. If we have a lot of rain we could be pushing to get done by the time staff comes back in August. It’s all up to Mother Nature.”
Next summer the remaining projects including replacing air handlers, work on the concrete and asphalt and tuck pointing will be completed.
Budget
As the district fiscal year nears its end, the board reviewed their revised 2025 budget.
While there have not been any considerable changes made, Klavetter did clarify one area of the budget.
“It shows a projected deficit spend of the $221,018, but as we talked about that is not actually correct. Remember there are the funds that were in the general fund that should have been in the debt fund to repay for projects and that was just a clerical error from years ago,” Klavetter explained.
The amount of $221,018 was moved from the general fund to fund 6, which is the construction fund.
The board approved the new fiscal year 2025 revised budget.
The board then discussed the five-year budget forecast for the district.
“We are waiting for the legislature to adjourn, but we are predicting an increase in revenue for school year 2026. There is a slight decrease predicted for school year 2027. That is driven in part by that couple of years dip we have because people weren’t having babies,” Klavetter said. “Our expectation is we will rebound. For about five years in a row our kindergarten has been consistently 45 to 50 students.”
Klavetter clarified that when looking at enrollment numbers it needs to be understood that funding is based on the average daily membership (ADM) and per pupil enrollment.
When explaining ADM Klavetter said, “This is not necessarily our number of ‘butts in seats.’ What happens is we have students that are here all day, but they are taking five of their classes in a classroom the traditional way. The other two hours they are in the library on the computer taking an online postsecondary enrollment options (PSEO) class. The district doesn’t get funding for those two classes, the college does.”
The per pupil enrollment funding works by counting kindergarten though sixth grade students as one pupil unit. Seventh through 12th grade students are counted as 1.2 pupil units.
According to Klavetter, this is due to the increase in cost to educate students as the curriculums get more expansive and the need for more resources grows.
When looking four and five years out for their budget, Klavetter told the board at this point it is a lot of speculation because of the uncertainties of what increases or decreases the government will make by then.
Other business
• The board thanked the anonymous donor who generously donate $528 to the Knightettes for the cost of recital flowers.
• The following staff were recommended for tenure after completing their three years of probationary teaching: Isaiah Minnich, Cole Roeder, Erin Stevenson, Amanda Thauwald and Emma Welch. The board approved the recommendations. The board voted to not renew the teaching contract of Mackenzie Wannarka.
• The recommended closure of the petty cash account was approved. The funds will be transferred the remaining funds to the district’s general checking account.
• The board approved the candidates for graduation.
• The capital outlay of $179,977.81 was approved. This covers print materials, curriculums, uniforms, office machines and HP Chromebooks for the district in the next school year.
• The board voted to hire CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA) to do their fiscal year financial audit.
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