Marlboro school board fails to adopt general budget

Marlboro County School District Board of Education has failed to adopt a 2009-10 general operating budget or even have first reading of the budget by the start of the new fiscal year.

During a called meeting Monday, the board failed to approve first reading of the budget that totals $28,485,724 and has a deficit of about $360,000.

The budget includes an estimated $1.4 million in federal stimulus money, but with a decrease in state revenue, the budget has yet to be balanced.

To eliminate the deficit, Wes Park, the district’s chief financial officer, recommends the board approve a 13-mill swap and a 6.3-mill Consumer Price Index tax increase.

The 13 mills would be transferred from debt service to the general fund.

Several board members have called for deeper cuts at the administrative level to keep from cutting at the school levels and are against a tax increase because of the unstable economy.

Several measures have been used to reduce operating costs and offset staff reductions and millage increases, including recommendations from school principals and the elimination of about 45 positions either through retirement, vacancies, position cuts or employees not meeting certification requirements.

After some discussion, the board unanimously approved a resolution authorizing the continuance of the 2008-09 budget in order to continue operation. The resolution will allow the district until Aug. 31 to approve a new budget.

The board’s next regular meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. July 13 in the media center of Marlboro County High School, 921 Fayetteville Ave., Bennettsville.

In other business, Rep. Doug Jennings, D-Marlboro, presented information on a bill that would require the board to cast a two-thirds vote, or six members of the nine-member board, when hiring or firing a superintendent.

The board voted 5-4 to terminate its contract with Alisa Goodman.

The bill has already passed two readings and would be up for a third reading in January when the General Assembly reconvenes.

Jennings said he apologized to the board for not addressing the bill earlier, but his intent was to bring about a consensus on the board instead of a majority approach when making decisions.

“I think that our next superintendent has every right to have the consensus (and) support of the board and the community when they start the job,” Jennings said. “The board has been split on so many things in recent years. My hope is that the bill would cause them to listen to one another, to respect one another’s views and come up with a superintendent that would reflect a broad consensus approach of the entire board.

“Maybe that would help us heal any fractures that are out there and try to bring this community together for the best interest of children,” he said.

Jennings said he would withdraw the bill if the board could approve a new superintendent with at least a two-thirds vote.

Several board members disagreed with the bill stating that requiring a two-thirds vote should be a board decision, not from state government.

Board secretary Barbara Ohanesian made a motion to reject bill H.4122 and asked Jennings to remove it from the floor of the House.

The motion passed with a 6 to 2 vote.

Jennings said he has offered to raise funds privately for the board to attend a board retreat in order to work on building a better relationship between the members.

“I think this board needs to bury the hatchet on some of their issues of personality and politics with one another and move on with doing some healing in this community,” Jennings said.

On the Web
Marlboro County School District, http://www.marlboro.k12.sc.us