BROSELEY — The Twin Rivers R-X Board of Education is taking a look at reducing its expenditures after receiving the audit of the 2018-19 school year at Thursday afternoon‘s monthly board meeting at Twin Rivers High School.
The district engaged in $856,000 in deficit spending during the fiscal year that ended June 30, reducing its fund balances from $2,425,843.72 to $1,569,838.65 — a 35 percent dip over 12 months.
Dwayne Clark, CPA, of Hayti, who performed the audit, described it to the board as a “perfect storm” of increased spending and reduced revenues.
“We started two preschool early childhood special education programs in January (2019), which was with the audit,” Twin Rivers superintendent Jeremy Siebert said. “We had to add two full-time teachers, one on each end and an aide on each end, plus we had to lease a building at Fisk to create room for that position and (had) all kinds of other expenses that went into that. ... Our revenue (also) dropped, so all of that coming in the same year was a perfect storm.”
Another factor that has helped reduce revenue is a steady drop in enrollment, which Siebert said is a common problem of schools in Southeast Missouri.
“It’s been a steady decline each year,” Siebert said of the last few years. “We’ve probably dropped somewhere in the neighborhood of 70-80 students over that time. I think a lot of rural schools in Southeast Missouri see that as well. Sometimes you’ll see (it) — whether it be industry in the area drawing people in, or what we’ve seen a lot in Southeast Missouri, is industry going away.”
Clark also told the board that it should be cutting expenses, something that has already been on Siebert’s radar.
One thing that Siebert has considered as a way of reducing expenses is moving Twin Rivers to a four-day school week as opposed to the current five-day week.
“We surveyed the staff earlier this year — it’s just that we haven’t had a chance to put it on the agenda for the board to discuss yet, so hopefully we’ll do that next month and let the board discuss it,” Siebert said. “We don’t vote on the calendar until April, but I think it probably needs to be discussed in open session between now and then.”
Clark mentioned the possibility of simply not filling vacated positions as another way of bringing down expenses.
Siebert also acknowledged that reducing expenditures on salaries and benefits are the only way to make a “big drop in the bucket” when it comes to making a significant budget cut.
“We try to look at that all the time,” Siebert said. “We actually absorbed two full-time certified positions this past year and one certified position went from full-time to part-time, so we absorbed two and a half positions this year. We’re always looking at that, (but) with us being spread out over three towns (Qulin, Fisk and Broseley) and having two K-8 districts, it’s not as easy for us to make cuts sometimes as it is for schools that are more centrally located. But we look at that every time somebody retires or leaves the district.”
Also on the radar when it comes to cutting expenses is forming a committee to explore the topic. Siebert said it will be on the January agenda and the committee likely would consist of school board members, teachers and administrators.
“I think that’d be a good idea with all the new stuff that we’ve added and things going on,” Siebert said. “Forming a committee to help guide the administration going forward would be a good thing.”
In other items of business, the board:
• Set Jan. 21 at 3 p.m. as the date for the next school board meeting; and
• Accepted the resignation of Fisk Elementary teacher’s aides Yonna Hillis and Christine Collins.