High school could also wield a budget veto
By Tracy Ouellette
Staff Writer
While the Waterford Graded School District waits on a new temporary agreement being prepared for the Waterford Special Education Cooperative, School Board members expressed frustration at not having the information they need to make informed decisions regarding the Co-op’s proposed budget.
At Monday night’s Personnel and Finance Committee meeting, board members asked District Administrator Chris Joch to take their concerns to the March 6 meeting with the other district administrators in the Co-op. The meeting is being held to try to hash out a temporary contract between WGSD and the Co-op for special education services through June 30 of this year.
At issue, for Waterford Graded, is next year’s Co-op proposed budget, specifically the across-the-board 2.5 percent salary hike in all the staff and administration; the handling of post-employment benefits; and the ability to have some sort of conflict resolution clause added to the contract Waterford Graded is negotiating with the Co-op.
Board President Dan Jensen said as majority funders of the Co-op, Waterford Union High School and Waterford Graded should have the ability to veto a proposed budget if either district has a problem with it.
At that point, Jensen explained, the issue should move into “conflict resolution” where a compromise could be worked out. A mediator might be brought in to help with that if necessary.
“I want to have the ability to force them into a conflict resolution to find a compromise,” Jensen said.
Board member Paul Beyerl said he’d like to see Waterford Graded have more input into the running of the Co-op and the decisions being made.
“Just because they (Waterford Union High School District) are the fiscal agent does not mean they run it,” Beyerl said.
Board members said they didn’t think the proposed 2.5 percent across-the-board salary hike was a good idea. They said a “target point” of 1.5 percent or below was more reasonable.
Jensen said he wants to see more flexibility with salaries that reflect a mix of increases based on need. He used the position of occupational/physical therapist as an example, saying it is a difficult job to fill and those people might be offered a 4 percent increase so the Co-op could keep them.
Other board members expressed the desire to reward high-performing staff.
“Those individuals contributing the most would be compensated more,” Beyerl said.
Board members also disliked the fact that the post employment benefit monies paid in for Co-op employees is “preloaded” and just “sits” in the high school’s fund balance.
“It’s not available for us to review in the special education budget,” Jensen said.
Having the post employment funds as a line item in the budget is an issue the board asked Joch to take to the March 6 contract meeting. The board also asked Joch to see if a separate annual audit can be instituted for the Co-op instead of relying on the high school’s annual audit.
Beyerl said now might be a good time for the Co-op to become a separate entity financially, with its own accounts and its own audit.
Other business
The committee discussed the option of hiring a full-time HVAC person instead of continuing the district’s contract with AcuTemp for repair and maintenance of the heating and air conditioning system.
Board members saw benefits to both directions, but questioned if there was enough work in the Graded Schools for a full-time employee and asked Joch if he had looked into the possibility of sharing the employee with the high school. Joch said he had some preliminary talks with the high school and there was some interested, but nothing more.
After some discussion as to how much it might save the district the board members decided to recommend the current contract be rolled over another year to give the administration time to further investigate the option of hiring on for the position in conjunction with the high school.
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