Tag: Fairfield County School Board

WINNSBORO – The Fairfield County School Board of Trustees voted 7-0 at their April 16 meeting to pass first reading of their $34,334,464 budget for 2013-2014. The budget, up from last year’s $32,789,140, anticipates an increase of $941,800 in local revenues from 2012-2013, but with an unchanged millage rate of 203.1.

Kevin Robinson, Director of Finance for the District, told the Board that last year administrators budgeted conservatively in terms of funds from local revenues and actually collected more in local property taxes, late fees and fines than expected. This year, he said, that expected number was bumped up by $800,000. The State’s portion of revenues was also tweaked in the coming budget by an additional $200,000. The additional $1 million is offset by a decrease of approximately $100,000 in other local taxes.

The 2013-2014 budget also includes a transfer of $291,000 from the general fund to the food services fund, Robinson said, as well as more than $695,000 slated for the Chester County School District to pay for Fairfield County students living in the Mitford area and attending Chester County schools.

Salaries consume about 85 percent of the budget, Robinson said, with a 2013-2014 increase of $1,025,508, which includes step increases for teachers and non-teaching personnel, as well as an increase in health insurance costs and retirement benefits, but 5 percent each.

With the swearing in of new member during their Nov. 20 meeting, the Fairfield County School Board also elected new officers for their 2012-2013 session. Newly elected members William Frick (District 6) and Paula Hartman (District 2), as well as re-elected member Annie McDaniel (District 4) took their oaths of office as the meeting got under way. Frick then declined a nomination by McDaniel for Board Chairman, a position that then went to Beth Reid (District 7). Frick was later elected Vice Chairman on a 4-3 vote over outgoing Chairwoman Andrea Harrison (District 1). Harrison was then unanimously elected Board Secretary.

The Board then received a report from Brent Jeffcoat, a bond attorney with the Pope Zeigler law firm in Columbia, and Mike Gallager, of Southwest Securities, on options for the District to raise money for a new career center.

Gallager said the District could issue three separate bonds over the next three years to raise the approximately $15 million estimated to be necessary to fund the new facility. Jeffcoat said issuing three bonds would allow the District to raise the fund without the need for a referendum and without millage rates going up to more than 22 mils.

Bonds issued in 2013 and 2014, Gallager said, would generate $1.5 million each, and a bond issued in 2015 would tack on an additional $12 million. From the 9.9 millage rate at which the District is currently taxing, the initial bonds would take that rate to 13 mils. By 2016 through 2025, the rate would be back down to 11 mils, Gallager said.

“This does get you very tight on your bond-debt capacity for a couple of years out,” Jeffcoat said.

“We don’t want to push you right up to the absolute edge,” Gallager added. “The last thing we want to do is build a new building and not be able to have it adequately equipped.”

McDaniel noted that the District was issuing operating bonds each year, and Gallager said that was not included in his calculation of proposed millage rates. The annual bonds would add about 9 mils to the original figures, he said.

Jeffcoat said future tax revenues from the new reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station were also not included in this plan, as they were not expected to begin impacting the County until, at earliest, 2016.

The Board also voted to move their December meeting to Dec. 11. The meeting will be held at Fairfield Central High School at 6 p.m.

Nearly $1 Million Siphoned from General Fund

The Fairfield County School District received an “unqualified” report on its annual audit, a Spartanburg CPA told the Board during its Nov. 20 meeting, in spite of two minor findings and questions about a transfer of nearly $1 million from the general fund into the food services fund last summer for the purchase of new cafeteria equipment.

Chuck Talbert, a CPA with the McAbee, Talbert and Halliday firm, told the Board that the pupil activity fund had been operating in a decentralized manner, creating issues with internal controls over financial reporting. According to the audit, “There is a lack of segregation of duties at all schools related to pupil activity cash receipts and disbursements. This lack of segregation of duties is both in receipts and disbursements as the bookkeeper was responsible for collecting receipts, making the deposits, preparing disbursements and reconciling the bank statements.”

At Geiger Elementary School, auditors found “instances of missing support for bank deposits and instances of missing supporting documentation for checks.” Also at Geiger, auditors found “instances of bank reconciliations not being completed on a timely basis.”

At Fairfield Central High School, auditors found “a lack of segregation of duties involving bank reconciliation and documentation for checks drawn on the account; no approval of checks over $500 by the Office of Finance; lack of approval on invoices for payment of goods and services from the checking account; unable to locate canceled checks.”

These issues, the audit stated, “may be indicative of other internal control deficiencies for pupil activities at the schools.” But, Talbert told the Board, improvements have already been made.

“We have worked with administration and we concur with procedures they have taken going forward,” Talbert said. “Previously, much of the activity of the pupil activity funds was on a decentralized basis. That is now centralized. I really feel like that is a better control component, to have that centralized.”

Auditors also found minor issues with the District’s federal financial assistance, including Title I grants. Districts are required to check the Excluded Parties List System for vendors who have been suspended or debarred before expending money from federal programs, the audit states. The Fairfield County School District did not do so. As a result, the audit states, “The District could be subject to claims or future funding could be limited or suspended by the funding agency for failure to comply with the requirements.” Nevertheless, Talbert said, the District received a clean opinion on that matter as well.

The audit noted that the fund balance for the District at the end of the 2011-2012 fiscal year was $4,611,728 – down $179,584 from the 2010-2011 fiscal year, in spite of the District taking in $600,000 in additional tax revenue this year. This finding sparked questions from Board members about a transfer of $910,460 from the general fund into the food services fund last summer for the purchase of kitchen equipment for District cafeterias.

“That fund balance transferred over into the food service program was supposed to be approved by the Board,” Annie McDaniel said. She later confirmed that it was not.

Bobby Cunningham asked if the food service fund was supposed to be a self-supporting entity, and McDaniel said it was designed to be such. But Talbert said the District had changed the food services fund to a special revenue fund.

“If that occurred, the Board never took action on it,” McDaniel said.

It is no secret that the Fairfield County School Board of Trustees opens their meetings with a prayer, but a January ruling against a S.C. school district in U.S. District Court and new efforts by the American Civil Liberties Union may spell the end of that practice.

Bolstered by their legal victory earlier this year over the Chesterfield County School District, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has launched the Religious Freedom Goes to School campaign, aimed, they say, at strengthening religious freedom in South Carolina’s public schools. As part of that campaign, the ACLU sent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to school districts statewide in an effort to determine if policies are in place to preserve the First Amendment rights of all of their students.

Since their victory in the Chesterfield case, Victoria Middleton, executive director of the ACLU of South Carolina, said the ACLU has received a number of complaints from across the state. Two weeks ago, the Fairfield County School District received that FOIA request from Susan Dunn, legal director for the ACLU of South Carolina.

“(This program) is an effort to get an idea of what the policies are at the districts,” Middleton said, “if they do have policies, and the way they can comply with the First Amendment in regard to freedom of religion.”

In addition to policies, the FOIA request seeks records of all programs, schedules, itineraries, calendars, agendas, minutes or news publications referring to, relating to or reflecting the inclusion of prayer, invocations, benedictions, blessings, proselytizing or other religious remarks or exercises in any school-sponsored event, including (but not limited to) graduation exercises, athletic events, school board meetings, ceremonies and banquets, baccalaureate services, school event calendars, daily announcements and school newsletters.

This latest campaign by the ACLU is not an effort to prevent individuals from freely and publicly expressing their faith, Middleton said, but an effort to prevent the government – which includes public schools – from imposing faith upon anyone. The government cannot impede, prevent or promote or impose religious exercises, she said.

“We have children of all faiths, and children of no faith, in our schools,” she said. “A child can pray at school. The ACLU has defended the rights of children to pray in schools. But public schools are not Sunday schools.”

Middleton would not comment specifically on whether or not the practices of the Fairfield County School Board constitute a violation of the First Amendment, but said opening meetings with a prayer could pose a problem.

“We’re trying to get the information into us in a systematic way, look at their policies and look at their practices,” she said. “Yes, opening board meetings with a prayer can be problematic, without making a judgment on a particular case.”

Reached for comment on their policies Friday morning, the Fairfield County School District issued the following statement:

“The FOIA allows 15 business days within which to respond. The district is still within the time line. A reply is being prepared by Childs and Halligan (attorneys for the district).”

A phone call to the offices of Childs and Halligan was not returned at press time.

In Chesterfield, Middleton said, a middle school student was the victim of religious coercion. Teachers were praying over him, she said, and he was being sent to detention for not attending an evangelical pep rally.

“It’s hard for a 12-year-old to stand up for their rights on their own,” she said.

In December 2011, that student’s parent sued the Chesterfield County School District, and in January of this year, U.S. District Court judge R. Bryan Harwell ruled in favor of the parent. As a result, Chesterfield was issued a permanent injunction against prayer at school events, and school officials were enjoined from promoting their religious beliefs to students. The Chesterfield School District was also stuck with the plaintiff’s attorney’s fees.