Kingfisher Board of Education members on Monday discussed paying down more of the settlement agreement with Mason Mecklenburg, thereby easing the tax burden on the school district’s property owners.

They opted to put off a final decision until the last meeting of this fiscal year when at least one board member and the superintendent said more concrete financial numbers would allow them to understand how much financial wiggle room the district will have.

“There should be some very serious discussion that says, ‘Hey, are we going to help facilitate this and cover this cost?’ or if we’re just going to shrug it off,” said board member Brad Wittrock.

“I’m not a fan of taking that much money (carryover funds into next fiscal year) and at least not making a payment.”

Wittrock made that statement during the discussion at the June regular meeting held at Kingfisher Junior High.

It’s in reference to the $5 million settlement the district agreed to pay late last year in the civil suit brought against KPS and multiple coaches by Mecklenburg.

The agreement called for the district to pay $1.25 million from its general fund by Feb. 3.

The remaining $3.75 million would fall to taxpayers in the KPS district via the district’s sinking fund over a three-year period, according to the agreement.

An estimate provided to the Times & Free Press in December stated district taxpayers could see a 12 percent hike in ad valorem taxes over the three years.

Board members voted 4-1 on Dec. 4 to accept the agreement. Wittrock cast the dissenting vote.

At that meeting, Wittrock stated the district was hopeful it would be able to ease that tax burden by paying into the sinking fund each year prior to taxes being mailed out.

“I’m not making a promise,” he said in the Decem- ber meeting. “I’m just telling you that is the goal of what we’re trying to do.”

However, that goal was shot down within weeks.

Heath Dobrovolny, then the chairman of the Kingfisher County Board of County Commissioners, provided the Times & Free Press with an opinion filed by Drew Edmondson, the Oklahoma attorney general in 2000.

In his opinion, Edmondson said the law specifically states districts cannot use general fund monies from state and local sources to pay a judgment.

Only federal funds, Edmondson said, “may be placed in the sinking fund and used…if such an expenditure is not prohibited by the federal law under which money was provided.”

That left the district with a limited window to try to ease the burden.

The KPS board annually meets twice in June - its standard meeting on the first Monday of the month and then another toward the end of the month to tie up fiscal year loose ends.

That meeting date this year is June 24.

“I was hoping to come in here and make a suggestion that we pay at least another $1.25 (million) on that payment to at least pay half of the debt,” said Wittrock, who said he requested the item be put on Monday’s agenda.

“Whether we vote on it tonight or we vote on it the 24th, I think it’s good to have some discussion as to what the school is leaning towards.”

“I don’t think it’s a bad idea,” Superintendent David Glover said. “I just want to make sure we can still have school. If it’s the board’s pleasure to pay the $1.25 million, David Glover’s not going to stand in the way. We’ll make that work.”

Glover told board members that all revenues were down this fiscal year - including gross production being half of what it was the year before.

“With that being said and with some of the projects we were able to complete with the school system, right now we’re looking at $3.5 million as a fund balance,” he said.

That number should increase by the end of the month, Glover added.

KPS is expecting just over $600,000 from the state to cover the cost of the mandated teacher pay raises.

Money to cover those raises was put into the state budget for schools on the state aid formula. However, there was no money set aside for those off the formula - like Kingfisher currently is.

“It was kind of an oversight,” Glover said of the state.

The state legislature recently passed a supplemental to the budget to cover those raises for schools not on the state aid formula.

Glover said he’d have more information by Wednesday on when that money should arrive.

The district will also receive its monthly gross production check on June 10. Glover said if it stays consistent, it should be around $300,000.

KPS is also awaiting federal money through the Individuals with Disabilities Education ACT (IDEA).

If all those funds come in this month, Glover said the district carryover could approach $5 million heading into next year.

“My recommendation to you all, if we could, table this until the 24th,” Glover said. “We still have time on the 24th for you to make a decision. We go from an estimate to pretty solid in our numbers.”

Glover added that the carryover is important as the district needs those funds to cover costs for the first few months of the new fiscal year.

“We’ve still got to be able to operate and do the things we need to do up here for our kids right now and that’s my concern,” Glover said, adding, “I just want to make sure we’re covered salary- wise for the first couple of months.”

Wittrock said regardless if all the money comes in by the end of the fiscal year, the district should look at making another payment toward the settlement.

“The goal was not to just pass this on to the community,” he said. “Our goal was to absorb that ourselves and not pass that on to the landowners or the property owners. I would be of the opinion that we still maintain that effort to make a payment.”

Wittrock also discussed the option of changing the district’s millage through the county’s excise board, directing a percentage of mills in the future from the general fund to the sinking fund.

Glover noted that would take about $1 million from the general fund.

“Which would be no different than making the payments ourselves,” Wittrock noted.

Glover said the district is likely about to return to the state aid formula, which means there is a gap year in which the school doesn’t receive enough local money and yet won’t be receiving the state money.

“This is a very big year for us. This is the year we have to get by being off of the formula. This is the year we have to be able to function off the formula,” he said. “Taking money away from our budget is scary. That’s just me being transparent and honest. That scares me for our district, for our teachers and for our kids.

“We’ve still got to be able to operate. We’ve still got 1,400 kids that don’t care about a lawsuit. I don’t know why the (excise) board would want to do that to the kids.”

Said Wittrock: “If I’m being transparent in this, we spent $23 million on our own this year…without a second payment and without a teacher stipend. I feel like we spent a lot of money.”

Board President Charles Walker said to Wittrock: “Brad, the $23 million that we spent this year, you voted on spending that same funds.”

“You’re right and I won’t do it again,” Wittrock said. “The blame is on me, too.”

Wittrock previously mentioned the attorneys’ fees for the lawsuit, which topped more than $1 million, the initial payment of $1.25 million for the settlement as well as extensive renovations at Gilmour Elementary School as some of those expenses for 2023-24.

Walker added the new soccer/junior high football locker rooms, the addition to the ag barn and renovations to the concession stand at the football/soccer field.

“It (that money) won’t be spent next year,” added board member Dana Golbek.

“I’m not trying to be the bad guy,” Wittrock said. “I just don’t think that much should have been spent without a stipend (for teachers) being budgeted - at least one - or a payment being made.

“We all made a deal that we were going to try to make the payment over these years. We do have a chance this year. We may not in future years.”

He later added: “I don’t want to carryover all this money and not make a payment to help the community. If we agreed that we’re going to have a settlement, then we need to help pay for that settlement.”

Added board member Carly Franks: “I would like to see what the gross production comes in at. I would love to see the state pay us at least the $600,000 that they owe us and get the federal money before I’m comfortable making a decision.”

All four members present - Wittrock, Franks, Golbek and Walker - voted to table any action until June 24. Board member Terry Payne was absent.

“I just want to say that I do understand it takes from the kids and that’s the unfortunate situation in this whole deal,” Wittrock said in closing the agenda item. “And that was, from the start of this whole deal, that it was going to take away from the kids…and so we’re just going to have to play in the sandbox that we’re dealt and go from there.”