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Superintendent clarifies Fund 80, seeks to restore health aide and increase speech-language FTE
Summary
Superintendent Shannon explained Fund 80 (school-age care) accounting, recommended restoring a health aide position to staff each building, and proposed raising a speech-language pathologist from .8 to 1.0 FTE funded via special-education carryover (Fund 27); no final action was taken and both staffing items will return to the board.
Superintendent Shannon provided a multi-part report clarifying district accounting and staffing needs.
On Fund 80, Shannon said the account holds revenues and expenditures for the district's school-age-care program and that Somerset has not levied for Fund 80; that, she said, explains apparent discrepancies between the daycare presentation and the treasurer's report. She told the board she would attach explanatory materials to the agenda and invited follow-up questions.
Shannon recommended restoring a health aide position that had been reduced during prior budget cuts. She said the district has been managing with a single health staff member floating between buildings but that current student and staff medical needs make that arrangement unsafe. The recommendation is to reestablish a third health position so each building has trained coverage. Shannon asked for input and said she did not expect action tonight; the item will return to the board at the next meeting.
On special education, Shannon proposed increasing a speech-language pathologist from .8 FTE to 1.0 (a 0.2 increase) because current staffing is insufficient to meet IEP obligations. She stated this increase could be supported from Fund 27 (special-education flow-through carryover) rather than the general Fund 10. Board members and staff discussed the constraints on spending carryover and the district's history of using some Fund 10 dollars to cover special-education needs when state and federal reimbursements are insufficient.
Shannon and board members noted that current special-education reimbursement sits at about 32% and that state-level proposals could increase reimbursement toward 66% in a future budget, a change that would materially affect district budgeting. The superintendent encouraged board members to contact local legislators about reimbursement rates.
No personnel actions were approved at this meeting; both staffing recommendations will return for formal consideration.
