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R-2 District September 2008 Board Meeting Administration Building, Old High School Up for Sale
C-T Photo / Laura Schuler For Sale: Nice two story building with basement, large vacant lot and three storage buildings. Also for sale: historic three-story brick structure perfect for razing. Interested buyers of either or both properties should contact the Chillicothe R-2 School District immediately. Chillicothe R-2 board members classified the R-2 administration building and the old Chillicothe High School building as surplus property Tuesday night during the regular September board meeting. The action was taken mostly as a “housekeeping” measure, according to board president Randy Constant. However, he noted that over the last few years, the district has received a few verbal bids on the properties. “Dr. Smith (R-2 superintendent) finally made us aware that we needed to list (those properties) as ‘surplus’ so we could take action immediately if we were approached by an interested buyer with an offer worth consideration,” Constant explained. Prior to the declaration, he said, buyers submitting bids on either or both properties would have had to wait for 30 to 45 days before their bid could be considered. In order for district property to be sold, it must be advertised as surplus in the local print media for two weeks. Then, bids on all or part of the properties must be evaluated and then accepted or declined. “It is one of our main goals to get the old high school removed,” Constant said, adding that its deteriorating condition has been a concern for all members of the board. Its razing, Constant said, is also something that was promised to R-2 patrons years ago. Kenneth Churchill donated the administration building and surrounding property to the district to generate revenue for the district in any way possible, Constant said. He added that the sale of both properties would help the district address two serious facility needs. Panel Debates Hiring Building Assessment, Planning Firm
C-T Photo If both the old Chillicothe High School and the administrative building and/or its surrounding properties are sold (see related story), board members say they would like to know where to best put that money. “Our difficulty,” board president Randy Constant said, “is we have no emergency structural problem (excluding the razing of the old Chillicothe High School).” He noted that the district has many facility-related issues that need to be addressed and just applying a Band-Aid over a long term problem results in more spending in the long run. To that end, the board members discussed hiring a building assessment and planning company to give the district a better idea of where its money would be best spent. The issue was tabled during the regular August meeting and was put back into action Tuesday night during the regular September meeting at administrative headquarters. However, after a lengthy discussion and one failed motion to hire Dickinson Hussman Architects by member Tom Chapman, the board unanimously voted to revisit the issue in November. Dr. Linda Gray Smith, superintendent, told board members that even in tight budget years, money must be spent on the upkeep and repair of district facilities. “We need to do this. We’ve got to take care of what we have,” Smith said. She explained that having a facilities master plan in place would allow the district to move forward if funds do become available to, for instance, tear down the old Chillicothe High School. “If that happens, what do we do with the students currently using that portion of the school? We need a plan to get those people moved out of there and we need someone with expertise in this area to tell us how that is best accomplished,” Smith said. Even with the amended budget approved last night which showed a deficit of about $650,000, the superintendent said that hiring a building assessment and planning company could be done in the existing budget and would give the board a “punch list” of facility needs by June. Such a plan, Smith explained, would give the board a plan on how best to take care of the district’s existing buildings and give suggestions on how the district could operate more efficiently. School Board Continues Talks About Alcohol at Expo Center The Chillicothe R-2 School Board will determine next month whether to amend a district policy that bans alcohol from school property. If the policy is revised, alcohol will be allowed only at the Jenkins Expo Center, when the building is rented to adult, non-school-affiliated groups. Board members heard several comments regarding the issue — both in favor and against it — during the regular September meeting held Tuesday evening at district headquarters. Ron Wolf, co-director of Grand River Technical School, told board members that he asked that the policy be re-examined for two reasons:
Last year, Wolf said, the district provided $9,600 to pay for utilities and maintenance of the fairgrounds, with most of those funds going toward utility costs and maintenance of the Expo Center. Wolf said that revenue from renting the building came over $2,000 shy of covering that cost. As the Jenkins Expo Center ages, Wolf went on to say, more funds will need to be utilized for the building’s maintenance. District Budget Reviewed The Chillicothe R-2 School District will have to dip into its reserves to the tune of around $651,191 to fund its current 2008-09 operating budget — a budget that board members amended and approved Tuesday night during the regular September meeting at district headquarters. Before amending the budget, board president Randy Constant explained that because of rising utility costs and salary increases approved last spring, the projected budget adopted a few months ago “is no where close to where we are right now.” He told those gathered that the board will re-evaluate expenditures each quarter, consolidate more students onto its buses and hope for additional state and federal funding. Constant also said that he and fellow board members were glad to approve “nice raises” for the district’s teachers and staff members last spring, but eluded that another such pay increase will likely not occur toward the end of this fiscal year. “Bear with us as we struggle with this budget and the ones over the next three years,” Constant said. In a phone interview today, Constant said that he and fellow board members had been warned that some state and federal revenue would be lost, but did not foresee the skyrocketing fuel costs. “To some extent, this snuck up on us,” he said. Constant did say that because of the tight budget the board was “adamant” of having a balanced budget last fiscal year, but walked away from the May and June regular meetings with figures showing a deficit of $50,000 to $75,000. He said they were later “shocked” to the extent of the deficit the district was actually saddled with — $784,000. "We had no idea the deficit would be nine times that much," he said. "This has to be disheartening to us because we thought we at least ha some grip on it," Constant said. Chillicothe R-2 is not the only district in Northern Missouri experiencing extremely tight budgets. According to Constant, many other area school districts have also been hit hard by the phasing in of the "new" state funding plan. The "old" foundation formula, the manner in which school districts receive state aid, was amended in 1993 with the passage of Senate Bill 380, making this year the 16th under the "old" formula. Beginning with the 2006-07 school year, a "new" foundation formula has begun to be implemented and this year, Missouri public school districts will receive 56 percent of state revenues from the new formula; 44 percent will come from the old formula being phased out. According to Superintendent Dr. Linda Gray Smith, school districts will become more dependent on the new version and less on the old over the next several years. "This should be a concern for rural districts with more than 350 students as funding is primarily based on the number of students in the district," Gray said. She added, "With numbers becoming smaller in north central Missouri, this may not be advantageous." Total state revenue is approximately $8,634,188, comprising 42 percent of the district's projected revenue. "Our goal," Constant said, "is to figure out how we can educate every student the best we can on smaller revenue." That's necessary, Constant said, because the board can foresee what the district revenue's will be over the over the next two or three years and that they're not increasing. To battle the tightening purse strings, Gray advocated the following steps:
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The Chillicothe R-2 School board voted to classify the administrative building and its surrounding property, including a vacant lot and three storage buildings as surplus property
Tuesday night during the regular September board meeting. The board also declared the old Chillicothe High School as surplus property.
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- The R-2 board declared the old Chillicothe High School and the administrative office building and its surrounding property as surplus property Tuesday night at district headquarters during the regular September board meeting. The old CHS building, the administration building, and the property surrounding the administration building will be advertised in the newspaper over the next two weeks as surplus and then the district will accept bids on part or all of the properties which will later be evaluated and accepted or declined.