With one eye on the future but another eye on the pass, the Pendleton County Board of Education affirmed the recommendations from Superintendent Joe Buerkley in regards to the 2021-22 Tentative Budget and to reject the 2021-22 Supplemental School Year. The latter, better known as the ‘do-over’ year, passed by Kentucky legislators in the 2021 regular session that allowed parents and students who felt they had missed academic opportunities during covid to repeat the school year.
Buerkley said about the ‘do-over’ year, “We have looked at the options and do not believe it provides any academic benefits to our students.”
Afterwards, he told Falmouth Outlook, “If parents have a concern regarding learning loss from this school year, they should contact their child’s teacher or school administrator to discuss options for remediation. Our staff would be happy to collaborate with parents to determine the best academic placement for students next year.”
He further elaborated both in the meeting and afterwards that there are several things that they have in place and have had in place for many years to help students that might find themselves in dire straits academically. Those options are better for Pendleton County students than the option of a ‘do-over’ year.
Board Member Karen Delaney, who is a retired educator and was the guidance counselor and assistant principal at PCHS, agreed.
The timeline for the district to make a decision seemed to be rushed but was a result of restrictions and deadlines set by SB128 that created the supplement school year.
While the final decision had to be made by June 1, seniors that might participate in a ‘do-over’ are not allowed to participate in Class of 2021 Senior activities which started this past Wednesday with Class Night. The board had to act at the special called meeting on Monday, May 10 to confirm that seniors would need to participate in senior activities for this year.
For the 2021-22 school year, the Tentative Budget reflected a balanced budget with no additional tax revenue included. The General Fund budget is $23,710,557.61. Adjustments were made for utilities and insurance costs which are anticipated to increase. The district’s matching of CERS retirement was increased by 12% from 24.06% to 26.95%. The breakdown of the various funds are shown below. Special Revenues were estimated based on limited information since the State will not have anything tentatively posted until later in May or possibly in June, however when including all special revenues and Fund 51 (Food Services - $2,034,071.45) our total budget is $32,081,260.94.
In other actions, the board approved as part of the budget the 2021-22 Salary Schedule, Payroll/Pay Date Schedule, Indirect Cost, Fidelity Bond for Treasurer, Bond of Depository, Auditor Contract, Speech Language Therapy Contract, Psychological Evaluation Servies, and Occupational and Physical Therapy Services contract.
The board appointed members to the Evaluation Appeals Committee and the K-Tech memorandum of agreement. The Evaluation Appeals Committee will be composed of Laura Pugh, Maxie Kordes and Carissa Lloyd. Alternates are Matt Compton, Tiffany Espelage, and Brandi Schmidt.
During the opportunity for board members to make comments, Delaney shared “I am so pleased that we are rounding the corner. So many things have happened but hope springs eternal. There is an eagerness that next year things return to normal and the tone of conversation is ending and moving forward. It will be nice to celebrate the Class of 2021 with a little more normalcy.”
