Editor's note: This article has been edited to reflect that the third and final opt out discussion hosted by the Brookings School District has been rescheduled to 6 p.m. Thursday at the BHS commons.
BROOKINGS – Brookings School District Superintendent Klint Willert spoke to a good-sized crowd last Thursday to outline the district’s finances, make the case for the opt out the public will vote on April 10 and answer attendees’ questions.
This happened at the second of three opt out discussions open to the public. The next and final one is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at the Brookings High School commons.
Voters within school district boundaries – whether they’re in the city limits or not – are being asked to raise their property taxes by approving the requested $5.1 million-maximum annual opt out. Initially, the district would take $3.9 million, with a slight increase each year for 10 years to follow inflation.
Based on the initial opt out amount of $3.9 million, the tax levy for an owner-occupied home would be $2.31 per $1,000 in valuation.
With that rate in mind, that means a house worth $150,000 would see an estimated monthly increase of $22.35 in property taxes. For a house worth $200,000 it’d be an additional $29.80 each month or an additional $37.25 for a house worth $250,000.
Agricultural property tax levy would be $1.03 per $1,000 in valuation, and commercial property levy would be $4.77 per $1,000.
The tax rate then would increase each time the district increases the amount of taxes they draw of the maximum $5.1 million.
A breakdown of estimated monthly property tax increases at different valuation levels can be found online at https://www.brookings.k12.sd.us/Page/1344.
The opt out is being proposed to help the district close the gap between limited resources and the needs and wants of students, staff and the district. If nothing is done, the district is facing more than $750,000 in cuts just to balance its budget.
Brookings School Board members voted 4-1 in February to approve the opt out and send it to voters, with member Van Fishback dissenting and saying the board was asking for too much too quickly.
School board candidates Randy Grimsley and Deb DeBates have voiced support for an opt out to help fund the district. Roger DeGroot said he knows extra district funding is necessary but objects to the size of the proposal and the process the board used.
Unpredictable funds
A school district’s budget reflects the district’s priorities, Willert said, and it gets to the heart of what the opt out discussion and vote is all about.
One of the basic problems the district faces is an unpredictable stream of state funds.
“Up until the Thursday of the last day of the legislative session, schools across South Dakota state still did not know what their revenue would be. That really puts us at a strategic disadvantage when we talk about planning and doing our budgeting process,” Willert said.
As it turned out, increases in state funding wouldn’t keep up with inflation with a 1 percent increase in new funding for schools.
“We do currently have an opt out in place. That opt out is $750,000. That is to last essentially forever, as long as we need it. That opt out was passed to offset concerns about class sizes. … That was back in 2000, 2001,” Willert said.
But of course, the value of a dollar is lessened each year due to inflation, so those $750,000 went further back then than they do now.
The school district has undergone demographic studies to project future enrollment numbers in the district, and they predict the student population reaching 3,775 by 2025.
With these increased numbers, staffing becomes even more of a concern than it already is. At the middle school, for example, the district describes 132 classes as being ideally sized, 40 classes as manageable and eight as critical. At the high school, based on two semesters, 409 classes are ideally sized, 118 are manageably sized and 54 are at a critical level.
Willert anticipates hiring two additional teachers for the 2018-2019 school year will be necessary to keep up with student enrollment.
“Part of what’s impacting our system is that Brookings does some things differently than what other school districts do,” Willert said.
That includes things such as having lower class sizes, two planning periods for high school teachers and more playground supervisors than what other districts might have.
Places like Brandon Valley, another highly rated school district in the state, don’t have an opt out, Willert noted, but that comes with a tradeoff. “They have some of their elementary classes that are 28 students in a classroom. We could do that if you want to.”
And it could mean losing existing programs, options and opportunities.
Student support
Money generated from the opt out will attempt to address three broad categories: student support, staff support and district operations.
In regard to student support, Willert said the idea is to put things in place to better serve and support the needs of modern students.
Measures focused on student health and wellbeing are needed in light of a student survey that revealed widespread emotional and mental health issues in students, including suicidal thoughts.
“It is very profound to understand and see that the mental health needs of our students have changed dramatically,” Willert said, and the trends seen are not likely going to go away.
Students are also being prepared for work in a more competitive world, making career counseling all the more important. The district also has worked to give students an edge through programming options such as a new internship program.
School counselors, then, have two big tasks to handle – addressing students’ mental health needs and aiding them with career and college readiness – so the district asks for additional counselor staff and resources.
Other things – technology as learning increasingly becomes a digital experience, more staff for extracurricular and co-curricular activities, and class size reduction with target class sizes of 22 students – also factor in.
In all, the district places its student support requests with a $2.3 million price tag per year.
Staff support
The second category, staff support, would see an emphasis on staff development and additional administrative positions to help lighten some key workloads.
Among the additional positions asked for is a second director of curriculum and instruction.
“We’re a district moving to become 4,000 students with one person to handle all that – very challenging,” Willert said. “So, we’d love to split that into a secondary level and an elementary level curriculum director.”
There’s also a call for hiring two deans of students to assist principals by taking on that job’s disciplinary role.
Principals are asked to do a lot more than they have done in the past, Willert said, especially in regard to teacher and instructional oversight.
Then with increasing student populations – 577 students to one principal at Camelot Intermediate was Willert’s example – handling student issues can burden principals’ already heavy workloads.
“The dean of students would support the principal in dealing with some of the student behaviors that no longer can be accommodated by the principal,” Willert said.
Requests for staff support total $722,000 per year.
District operations
District operations are the third and final category for opt out dollars.
To match the growing student population, more money for transportation – additional buses and bus drivers, for example – will be necessary in the coming years.
The district also would put funds toward hiring a human resources director, which it currently does not have.
“We have on any given month nearly 800 different people on our payroll and yet we do not have a human resources director,” Willert said. “I would challenge anybody to find another organization in town that’s that labor intensive without a human resources person.”
The district also has discussed establishing a school district foundation to act as a receptacle for donations and a vehicle for supporting staff and students. If that comes to fruition, an executive director would be needed, and the director would initially be paid by the district. The foundation, which would become self-sustaining, would then begin paying the executive director.
The outlined district operations items would cost $185,400 per year.
Meeting needs
He ended by saying the $3.9 million would take care of those three categories (student support, staff support, operational needs) discussed earlier, and with inflation accounted for, those needs will continue to be met for the coming decade.
After the presentation, those in attendance had a chance to ask their questions about the opt out.
One of the questions asked about how money from the half-cent sales tax have been used.
That sales tax increase dictated that generated money would go specifically to raising teacher salaries, “and that’s exactly how it’s been spent,” Willert answered. “We’re still held to that standard today. There is no other use.”
Willert was then asked what the district would do if the opt out did not pass.
“If it doesn’t pass, we’re going to have to go back and talk about some of those things that were identified in those three areas that were mentioned,” Willert said, and discussions on district priorities like low class sizes are likely to happen.
“About 85 percent of our budget is people, so that’s where it gets impacted.”
Contact Eric Sandbulte at esandbulte@brookingsregister.com.
