05/22/2024
Herein contains an email Commission Sturgeon sent to all WCS Board Members and County Commissioners today, along with my in-line response. My views do not reflect the views of or speak for the WCS Board, but as this email was sent to all, I feel obligated to provide a counterpoint to demonstrate the view of a WCS Board member. I look forward to continued to discussions with the members of the Commission, WCS Board, and engagement from the community as we work together to balance the 24-25 County Budget and fully fund the budget needs of WCS, which are currently $555M, and I fully support finding creative ways for doing so without a tax increase if that is the will of the majority of the Commission.
[entire text is below but formatting is not better in the pdf to see my comments in-line]
Comm Sturgeon: School Board Members,
As a member of the funding body who will vote on your WCS Budget I felt that it is important to follow up my comments to you last night regarding your budget since I was unable to contain my complete message to you in the 60 seconds that was allowed me to speak. Thank you for taking the time to consider my thoughts.
1.
Comm Sturgeon: I believe almost everyone agrees that teacher's salaries need to be raised and I hope the board chooses to make teachers 6% pay raises their #1 budget priority.
WCSB Galbreath: WCS has several items that must be done this year, including purchasing textbooks, providing for annual raises for teacher “roll”, increases in insurance costs, increases in utilities and janitorial services, funding teachers for new computer science state requirement, and replacement of 5-year-old Chromebooks for high schools. The recruitment and retention of our teachers and staff is a key tenet of our Strategic Plan, and it is providing a pay raise to all of our employees, consistent with the agreement between Mayor Anderson and Superintendent Golden in February before we began our public budget discussions.
2.
Comm Sturgeon: We both know it is WCS and the School Board that set these funding priorities not the County Commission. I hope you decide teacher's salaries are more important than let's say technology?
WCSB Galbreath: We are all clear on the distinction of the roles of the County Commission and the WCS Board. WCS determines the funds that are required to operate the schools and the County Commission determines the amount that they are willing to fund. The Mayor typically provides guidance to the Superintendent, around the raise and general growth rate of the county budget and the expectations for WCS. In some years, it is zero raises and zero growth outside of positions required due to student growth. This year, the Mayor and Superintendent agreed on pursuing a 6% across the board raise for all county employees, including WCS, and WCS was informed of what is now a required $5.57M increase in the cost of insurance.
3.
Comm Sturgeon: Threatening teacher's salary increases is bad for morale. It’s a bad strategy for staying competitive in acquiring and retaining the best teachers. Please don't do that.
WCSB Galbreath: I have not heard from WCS Board threatening teacher raises. We are committed to providing a $16.8M raise to WCS employees as indicated by the $555M budget we passed last night to send back to the County Commission. If the Commission does not provide the full $555M, then we will have to make cuts somewhere. Unfortunately, there are $20.7M of expenses that we have to fund before we get to 6% raise.
4.
Comm Sturgeon: Towards the goal of acquiring and retaining the best teachers, you could adopt a different pay scale. One where administrators making over $100,000/yr would get smaller than 6 percent salary increases. The money saved could be used to pay rank and file teachers more.
WCSB Galbreath: This definitely doesn’t reflect any vote by the WCS Board, but I have proposed that we address our biggest staffing need, SPED TA’s, and other positions at the lower end of the scale and will continue to discuss how we allocate the $16.8M pay raise. That includes reviewing the impact of providing a slightly lower raise for those at the top of the pay scale, as well as increased stipends for our arts teachers. It must be noted that we must retain our administrators as well as our teachers, so providing them no raise is not an option. Also, the impact of the 6% of WCS employees making >$120k is only $500k of the $16.8M, so I'm not advocating for eliminating it, but even if it was eliminated it would close only 5% of the $10.2M current budget gap.
5.
Comm Sturgeon: The Budget Committee this year recommended a budget that required no property tax increase. ALL other county departments tightened their budgets and were able to provide a 6% pay increase to their employees while staying within the guidelines set by the County Commission.
WCSB Galbreath: Based on what I reviewed from the Budget Committee and the County Commission Budget, the County Budget is being balanced by reducing the general fund by $13M. I’m just a WCS Board member and Williamson County Resident, and it appears that the county is adding 21 positions this year (2% of its staff) and a total increase of $6M, which is a 7.8% increase in salaries over 23-24. Other costs are going up $2.4M or 3.2%. It appears that the County General Fund was at $104M at the end of FY 2023 and went down $18M to $86M this year and is proposed to be reduced down to $73M in FY 2025.
6.
Comm Sturgeon: This year The Budget Committee voted to recommend a 5% increase for Williamson County schools, allowing for a total of $545M not the $555 million before you tonight.
WCSB Galbreath: The Budget Committee didn’t vote to give WCS a 5% increase, it voted to leave the property tax rate at $1.09, the same as 23-24, which resulted in a 5% increase. In a prior vote, before needing to set the tax rate, I believe the budget committee agreed with the $555M.
7.
Comm Sturgeon: Based on last year’s Budget of $517M. This $28M increase provides adequate funding for the WCS raises, totaling $16.7M.
WCSB Galbreath: WCS has required spending, net of 28 eliminated positions and the reduction of over $1M of operating costs, of $20.7M. Continuing to insinuate that somehow there is $10M of waste or excess in the WCS budget to fund all of our obligations as well as the $16.8M raise is disingenuous, particularly when the county is funding its salary increase and increase of 22 positions through a $13M reduction of fund balance.
8.
Comm Sturgeon: Williamson County taxpayers fund a whopping 71% of the WCS budget with the state funding the difference, compared to other counties that only fund 11-30%. So I would argue that the County Commission has and is strongly supporting and fully funding our schools. I wish some of you would stop telling or implying to our constituents otherwise. Approximately 75% of the county budget pays for schools.
WCSB Galbreath: The state funding formula under the BEP and TISA dictates that Williamson County provide a majority of funding for schools. To the credit of the Mayor and County Commission, our county has been extremely frugal on non-school spending while keeping taxes low and keeping per pupil spending and teacher salaries near the state average.
9.
Comm Sturgeon: This month the Commission passed a resolution sponsored by Commissioners Torres, Morton, Webb and myself, asking the state to do better in funding education in Williamson County. So the County Commission is doing their part while respecting taxpayers, and they’re hard earned dollars. Not everyone in Williamson County is rich.
WCSB Galbreath: I don’t speak for the WCS Board, but if the Commission asked the Board to weigh in on asking the state to revisit the funding formula to the benefit of Williamson County, I’m sure we could be united in that stand. I’m open to appealing to the state about funding the Cost Differential Factor (CDF), which was phased out during the final years of BEP and has not been funded in TISA, as well as make the switch of the ability to pay formula completely to CBER as promised. Your presumption with your last statement is that by requesting $555M, the WCS Board doesn’t respect taxpayers and they’re (sic) hard earned dollars, when in reality, the County Commission has several options to fully fund our obligations, including a full $16.8M raise without a tax increase.
10.
Comm Sturgeon: I’m sure by now you’re all aware that Rutherford County Schools is educating about 25% more students on a budget that’s pretty much equivalent to what the Williamson County Budget Committee has approved funding for, $545 million. Additionally, RCS pays their teachers more than WCS. RCS is still one of the fastest growing districts in the state where enrollment here in Williamson has been relatively flat these past 3 years. You may not want to be compared to Rutherford. I agree with you there’s significant differences between us and them. But you can be sure teachers are doing that comparison. There’s value in doing a comparison of
our
two budgets. WCSB Galbreath: I’m sure you heard the reality of how Rutherford and Williamson Counties are different. Mostly related to the federal funding that Rutherford receives (~$40M more). If you want to help make our teachers’ salaries on par or greater than Rutherford, I’m happy to have a discussion on how to make that happen.
11.
Comm Sturgeon: Has the school board done a line-by-line review, comparing our budget with other comparable counties to see where cost saving opportunities can be found? When was the last time an independent audit was done on the budget by a 3rd party looking for opportunities for cost savings? I would like to know why Rutherford’s medical insurance is so much cheaper. I understand after I left the meeting school board members were saying an audit was already done by the TN comptroller. Obviously, this is not the type of audit being called for. The comptroller does not look for cost savings.
WCSB Galbreath: Our staff does a detailed review of the budget annually. This year, they identified 28 positions to eliminate and over $1M of operating cost savings. Rutherford County’s medical insurance is likely not cheaper, but it is likely that they pass more of the cost along to its employees than does Williamson County. In your request for an audit, that coincidentally was also requested by one of our school board members, do you know the cost of such an audit or who would perform it. And are you proposing that such an audit be performed on ALL county departments, including those for which the County Commission has operational authority or only for those under the operating authority of the WCS Board?
12.
Comm Sturgeon: Why has WCS ignored the most recent vote by the Budget Committee and put the $555 million budget back to the board instead of the $545 which will be published in the local paper? WCSB Galbreath: The WCS decision to put forth the $555M budget back to the Commission reflects the understanding that the Budet Commitee voted 3-2 and the Education Committee voted 3-3, but we would like to provide the entire County Commission the opportunity to find a way to fund the entire $555M budget.
13.
Comm Sturgeon: Over the next year or so the county is going to be faced with several big capital projects, including an adult jail & juvenile jail plus administration and Sheriff's Office, which will more than likely mean a significant tax increase. WCSB Galbreath: Thanks for the heads up. I for one would love to see a multi-year capital plan for the county, similar to the 5-year capital plan that WCS provides annually to the Commission. In addition, it would be fantastic to see all departments and the Commission start to do a multi-year operating plan to help the Commission plan for future needs.
14.
Comm Sturgeon: With that in mind, I believe there needs to be evidence to our county taxpayers that a concerted initiative has been done to identify cost savings
within the school budget. 75% of the total county budget. This would respect the
county’s taxpayers while ultimately protecting teacher's salary raises.
WCSB Galbreath: I have demonstrated the results of the WCS staff review during this budget cycle. I would appreciate any evidence of any staff and expense reductions on the non- school-related county departments as well as an accounting for how the county fund balance has reduced from $104M to $73M in 2 years.
Respectfully,
Barbara Sturgeon
Respectully,
Jay Galbreath, WCSB District 6
