Bruce Borchers
Let me first state how thankful I am to be part of the Oak Ridge community. I have not worked in, nor do I know of, a community and school district that has a stronger board of education or staff that is focused on students. There are many reasons and indicators of this, but one does not have to look too far to understand that the academic achievement in Oak Ridge has remained steady and/or improved despite a 30 percent increase in the number of students in poverty (over 50 percent of our students now come from a home of poverty) over the last decade. This is a true testament to the dedication of our board, staff, parents, and students.
I have enjoyed my transition both to Oak Ridge and Tennessee as superintendent and look forward to my second year in this role. I have become active in the community and am happy to be a member of Noon Rotary, the Chamber of Commerce Board, and the Methodist Medical Center Board. I look forward to participating in additional activities and offerings that this great community is so fortunate to have. My wife and I have also enjoyed a wonderful personal transition to Oak Ridge. My son will be a freshmen at Oak Ridge High School next year, and my daughter will be a part of the Pride of the Southland Marching Band this fall at the University of Tennessee. I feel blessed to have the opportunity to be the Oak Ridge superintendent as well as being a father of a current Oak Ridge student.
This is too great of a community and district to let negativity infiltrate the very essence of Oak Ridge. The creation of this amazing community and the Oak Ridge Schools is too great of a story for our country (the world really) to move in such a negative direction. Therefore, I pledge to do my part to keep the conversation civil, accurate, and most of all focused on the 4,440 students that walk through our doors every day who depend on the adults to make decisions based on the needs of children and not the comfort level of adults.
I typically avoid having conversations in any newspaper that are better left to a one-on-one conversation, but I felt compelled to respond to Ms. Baughn’s letter to the editor. Please know that I offer this information for clarity purposes only.
High School Debt
As reported earlier, revenue from the one-quarter of that one-half cent tax increase for the high school renovation project was used by the city to repay the high school debt. An Anderson County referendum in 2006 changed the way the other quarter cent was distributed to the schools—Oak Ridge, Anderson County, and Clinton city schools. The county referendum also increased sales tax revenue outside Oak Ridge by one quarter of a cent.
The Oak Ridge Schools, by law, felt they should have discretion on how that tax revenue was used. This brought about the need for the joint resolution between the Council and School Board to settle the debate between the city and the schools on how to pay off the debt. City Manager Mark Watson and I felt the high school debt resolution passed in March of this year was a good step forward toward resolving the debt issue and moving forward in a positive manner.
The language in the resolution requires both bodies to use their portions of the revenue generated by the sales tax hike to retire the high school debt by 2041, or sooner if possible. It goes on to state that, once the debt is retired, the funds revert back to the city and the School Board to use at their discretion.
According to the resolution, the city of Oak Ridge will continue to use the additional revenue from the sales tax increase of 2004 for high school debt payments. The resolution also states that the City Council and the School Board agree to use the revenues generated in the city limits of Oak Ridge for the retirement of the high school debt.
The resolution allows that sales tax generated by the Anderson County referendum of May 30, 2006, outside the city limits of Oak Ridge is to be designated as reserved and invested by the School Board at its discretion in accordance with the City Charter and state law. These funds would be used by ORS for technology enhancements, capital repairs and equipment, educational innovation projects and grants match, and debt reduction.
The schools’ construction budget for building/remodeling ORHS was $61,200,387. Of that total, $200,000 was a direct donation to the schools for the orchestra pit and $200,387 was a design contribution from the architects, which the City did not have to pay back, leaving the total at $60,800,000. Additionally, private business’s donations of several million dollars to the project did not require payback. The schools came in under budget for the project by $973. City staff members and council repeatedly chant the cost of the project to be $66,000,000. The schools did not spend $66,000,000. The city borrowed the additional funds ($5.9 million) to reimburse the city for prior year’s debt service. The schools had nothing to do with that transaction.
2005-2014 School SpendingÂ
The city’s allocation to the schools for Fiscal Year 2015 is not an increase. It is the same level that was funded in Fiscal Year 2012. It only appears to be an increase because the city will no longer be taking the equivalent of the sales tax for ORHS debt from the school allocation. Rather, the funds will come directly from the Anderson County trustee. These funds will represent the referendum-generated sales tax collected inside Oak Ridge. The schools’ county sales tax revenue line was reduced by the amount the city allocation line increased; therefore, it is a net zero change.
Staff CompensationÂ
|
ORS Budget COLAs |
U.S. Dept. of Labor – CPI- U% | ||
|
FY ’15 |
0.0% |
2.1% | |
|
FY ’14 |
0.0% |
2.1% | |
|
FY ’13 |
2.5% |
1.5% |
|
|
FY ’12 |
1.6% |
2.1% | |
|
FY ’11 |
0.0% |
3.2% | |
|
FY ’10 |
1.5% |
1.6% | |
|
FY ’09 |
0.0% |
-0.4% |
|
|
Totals |
5.6%
|
12.2%
|
|
|
7 Year Average |
0.8% |
1.74% |
Transportation
The Oak Ridge Schools did not “find†$200,000. We do our best to predict how revenues and expenditures will end up at the end of every school year. Once the financial year has ended, and we have accounted for all expenses and revenues, we are able to provide a final number to our Board of Education. Based upon the final numbers after closing FY14, we felt that we could utilize $200,000 of unspent FY14 funds (that would normally go to fund balance) to correct the calculation of the Parent Responsibility Zones (PRZs) from “as the crow flies†to “actual walking distance.†The $200,000 amount is non-recurring funds. Transportation expenses are recurring costs. So for future budgets, we would have to have recurring funds to cover the additional expense.
A point of clarification in regard to the comment, “the BOE planned to cut transportation even if we had given them every penny they asked for…†The community can access the audio files from the May 21 board meeting by following this link. The community is encouraged to listen to the entire meeting but specifically from the four-minute, 54-second mark to approximately six-minute, 00-second mark, where it clearly states that increased revenue would offset any cuts. I do realize that the increased Parent Responsibility Zone has an impact on families. My family was also impacted by this decision, and we, as a family, will need to adjust.
There were other impacts on our budget caused by a lack of increased funding as well. The following are a few examples:
- No new textbooks for some social studies students in FY15
- No staff raises
- No “1 to 1†technology initiative for students, instead “Bring Your OwnDevice†(BYOD) will be pursued
Maintenance of Effort
Each year a financial test is applied to our budget by the state of Tennessee to compare the amount of local revenue budgeted from one year to the next. In order to pass the test, the local revenue from one year to the next must either be at the same level or higher. If enrollment drops from one year to the next and it causes revenue to drop, and the district does not pass the test…then a second level of the test is applied based upon local revenue budgeted per student. Again, it must be the same level or higher than the previous year’s budget.The local revenue is made up of county sales and property tax collections, local charges for services, and the allocation from the City of Oak Ridge. When the City of Oak Ridge reduced the schools’ allocation to pay for ORHS debt, it caused a failure of the test. It was short by approximately $300,000. This was also the approximate amount of the extra sales tax collected outside of Oak Ridge that should have been retained at the schools. The city then allocated $250,000 to the schools to meet the test. Since the previous fiscal year had ended and we had final numbers on actual county tax collections from the previous year, the schools were able to increase the expected county tax collections by $50,000 for the new budget year to meet the full $300,000 shortfall.
Did Not Add Administrative Staff
In the letter to the editor, it was mentioned that we added an administrator at the cost of $100,000. This is a false statement. We did create a coordinator of data quality position. Half of this $73, 542 salary is being paid from the general fund and the other half comes from Title II funds. This position is critical to our success as we will be using data like never before in the history of Oak Ridge Schools. Response to Intervention (RTI) expectations also make this position critical. Finally, this position had a “return on investment†(ROI) of approximately $300,000 last school year.
Staff Professional Development
As shared with Ms. Baughn in an email on May 30, a team of 21 Oak Ridge School educators attended a Professional Learning Community conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, in June. The conference helped build capacity in our newly appointed Professional Learning Community (PLC) teacher leaders and school leaders in order to implement PLCs with fidelity. These leaders will assist staff in the development of common mission and vision statements; work with students on assessments aligned to what students need to know; help students, teachers, and schools set goals for academic achievement; and create collaborative atmospheres for the betterment of students.
The Oak Ridge educators were privileged to attend due to ongoing funds from the state and federal government under the Race to the Top (RTTT) legislation. Through a competitive grant process, Oak Ridge was awarded over $188,000 for the 2013-2014 school year, to implement Professional Learning Communities, as well as other research-based activities such as the use of assessments, increasing knowledge around the teacher/principal evaluation system called TEAM, the Response to Intervention system, and more. As a result of the Race to the Top legislation, educators were able to take advantage of increasing their skillset and knowledge without using local taxpayer funds. It’s important to note that any unspent RTTT funds, as of the end of this past fiscal year, would have had to be returned to the State.
As a result of the RTTT grant awards, students and schools are able to get the benefits of a developed educator workforce that has the ability to directly impact instruction for all Oak Ridge students.
Data Center
The data center holds critical equipment essential to the daily operation of ORS. The following is a brief listing: phones, all file storage, all financial information such as payroll, accounts payable, etc., critical emergency connectivity, state compliance and funding data, security camera operation, and HVAC controls for all buildings. These are a few of the critical services the facility provides today, and we are prepared for what the educational process may require in the future. The data center project was the final deliverable of a 10-year infrastructure plan that also included building wiring and fiber WAN connectivity (Oak Ridge metro fiber ring). The lifespan of the data center is projected at 20-25 years while the return on investment (ROI) for the data center is estimated at 11 years. Both the data center and Oak Ridge metro fiber project were built with the capacity to serve both the schools and the city.
The data center budget was approximately $800,000 for a facility ready to house equipment. Actual construction costs totaled approximately $761,673. Funds to cover these costs spanned over two budget years under capital outlay (not CIP from the city). This amount ($400,000 one year and $300,000 another year) was taken from fund balance. In addition, $61,673 came from ORS operations budget for in-house labor to save money.
Technology Capital Lease
On page 74 of the Oak Ridge Schools approved FY12 Budget, citizens can see that the lease in question is the following, “This line item accounts for principal on capital leases for computer equipment including an Apple lease for elementary building staff computers and student slabs, staff replacement computers, and 5 ORHS labs including: English, Science, Math, Social Studies, General Purpose and 8 Career Tech Labs. In FY12, funds were added to this line item for a teacher replacement computer lease.†The Oak Ridge Schools always provides a copy of the approved document to the City Council and publishes the budget on our website for the public.
Fund Balance
Fund balance is not a “savings account.†The schools do not receive the same revenue each month (like a paycheck), but rather, the amounts vary, and in some cases, we don’t receive that revenue at all, i.e. Basic Education Program funds. In those months when we do not receive revenue, we use the fund balance to pay those expenses. Without it we would not be able to make payroll and other monthly commitments, and we would have to pay interest to short-term borrow funds until revenue was received. Best business practice recommends retaining an 8-10 percent fund balance in relationship to operating expenditures.
Again, the Board of Education and I want to move forward with positive discussions for the students and families of this great community. We do have difficult choices to make as there are many competing priorities that exist in Oak Ridge. The budget scenarios that were developed and shared this year were offered in an effort to maintain excellence and to provide our students with a path to College and Career Readiness. Other districts and communities are facing and must deal with these same choices. As the Oak Ridge Superintendent, I believe it is my duty to create and share a vision that will help all students be successful after walking across the stage at graduation.
In closing, I will quote Mr. A.H. Blankenship, the first superintendent of schools: “Thus we began. With a sense of adventure, with a determination to make the most of a situation, we started out…looking forward to giving the children of Oak Ridge the best schools we could develop.â€
Bruce T. Borchers is superintendent of Oak Ridge Schools.
Andrew Howe says
Thanks for sending this column to Oak Ridge Today, Dr. Borchers.
I’m a huge advocate of getting explanations and information to the people, and one of the things I really like about you is your willingness to share, even on sticky matters.
I recognized that you can’t always make public statements about all subjects, or even respond to all subjects, for various reasons. When ORS can and does though, it really is great. And when it’s a confusing subject like this one, wrought with the possibility of opening the door to more negative feedback and argument, it means even more.
Keep on informing, my man.