Hennessey Public Schools Supt. Dr. Mike Woods staged a short course on school finance Monday night. He did it without a blackboard and chalk, but did use a Smartboard.

He explained why the school gets only $1 million in state aid while another school with the same number of students gets $4 million.

“We have large local wealth,” he told board members and pointed to almost $1.4 million in ad valorem (personal property tax) income, compared with $244,000 to the Kansas Public School in Delaware County for the same time period.

While Hennessey has $3 million in gross production income so far this year, the Kansas school had zero.

“We’d have to lose $3 million (in local funding) to get that amount of state aid,” he said.

Woods said Hennessey’s average class size is 14-16 students compared with 25-30 students at other schools with the same overall number of students.

Gross production income has gone down recently compared to last year, he said, “but this month it was up $40,000…This (gross production money) is still fool’s gold.”

He said they are cognizant of the fact 25 percent of the school’s revenue is gross production “and it can swing south in a heartbeat.”

“We don’t want to get in the position where we have to make personnel decisions in a rush,” he said. “We want to make sure we can continue to make decisions based on what is best for our kids, and not be reactionary due to a downturn in gross production.”

Payments questioned

The superintendent also fielded board questions.

Before approval of purchase orders and warrants, President Patrick Griffin asked why folding chairs (sideline and locker room chairs, $24,510) and other items for the Event Center were listed for payment from the general or building funds instead of the bond fund.

“We need to keep under the fund balance penalty this year,” Woods said, “and our bond fund will continue to grow.”

Hennessey started the July 1 year with a $3.9 million fund balance “but we were not penalized last year because there is a formula the State Department of Education uses if your fund balance increase was due to gross production,” Woods said after the meeting. “That basically gives you one year of grace. Last year was our year of grace.”

Woods told the Times & Free Press before the meeting that they took some projects out of the construction management and architect fees “so we’d have greater control and there were some things that were missed, or changes made, after the final plans were approved.”

Griffin also questioned a $12,982 payment for “monitor fix” at The Dome. Woods said that was so the large scoreboard and the six monitors in the lobby could work independently, if needed.

Lunch periods too short?

Luke Lough, board member and clerk, said he’d been told students weren’t having enough time to eat lunch.

Cristopher Choate said he had eaten lunch with son and both of them finished in time, but the student next to his son hadn’t “but he talked most of the time.”

Griffin said he also understood there was a problem and asked if they could extend the lunch period.

Someone also asked if there was some way they could add time at the end of the day to give children longer lunch periods.

Woods said they’d moved fifth graders to the elementary school lunch room to see if that helps the problem.

Pre-K-fifth graders have 20 minutes for lunch while mid-high school students have 34 minutes, according to emails from principals after the meeting. Lough said he understood they’d run out of entrees several times.

Woods said they were having a problem with the longer lines and entree choices, but OPAA, the lunch provider, is working on it.

The Dome

Woods announced, “The dome will be open for business in 60 days…They’ve made progress, but have had a couple of snags on the flooring. They should put the final coat on the floor next week.”

They were due to start a punch list this week.

Acting resource officer

The board approved an interlocal agreement with the town to provide a police officer at the school for two months while the district’s resource officer, Dale Pazzo, is out due to surgery.

Woods said the officer started that day.

Griffin questioned why the officer started that day when the board had it on their agenda to approve it that night. Woods said it was best to have someone there.

Board members questioned if the officer would arrest students.

“Not unless they do something of a criminal nature,” said Woods. “The officer knows he is here to protect the students and staff and is not in charge of disciplinary action. That’s up to the principals. We covered that in the written agreement.”

“Then this is only for two months?” asked a board member.

“Yes, unless for some reason he is needed longer,” Woods said. “That’s all in the agreement approved by the police chief, Phyllis (Walta, board attorney), and the town board. Our agreement is with the town, not the officer.”

Teachers of the Month

The February Teachers of the Month are Randi Simpson, science, middle school, and Kim Simunek, first grade, elementary school.

All members of the board were present: Vice President Dr. James Matthew Matousek, Joe Garrison, Griffin, Lough and Choate. Also at the board table were Timberly Jech, minutes clerk and business manager, and Woods.

Staff in the audience were Matt Means, middle school assistant principal/counselor/coach; Todd Cameron, computer network administrator, and Jack Quirk, event center videographer.

Others in the audience were Chandra Seiger, Karen Vogt, and these three town board members: Clif Vogt (vice mayor), Keith Meek and Richard Simunek (who was there to make a presentation to the board about his gift to teachers).