PERRYVILLE — The Perryville School District is looking at ways to stabilize its dwindling finances caused by declining enrollment, and layoffs will be considered as a last resort, Superintendent Ron Wilson said.
The district’s enrollment has declined by 106 students in the past decade, which has led to a corresponding drop in state funding, Wilson said. The district has 948 students in kindergarten through the 12th grade. The state funds districts based on their average daily enrollment.
“It’s very possible, with that many students lost, that we may have to put an RIF (reduction-in-force) policy in place,” he said last week.
“We have a substantial amount of money in our carryover, but we have spent more than we have taken in,” Wilson said. “Hopefully, we won’t this year, but we did last year.”
The district spent $17,642 more than its revenues last year, he said. It also spent $296,500 more than it received in 2013-14.
“We’ve deficit spent, but part of that is one-time expenditures we knew that we didn’t have in the budget, like buying school buses,” Wilson said.
A bus barn being constructed also collapsed during a snow that school year, and heating units went out, said Jenneal Welch, bookkeeper for the district.
Wilson said 2015-16 revenues are $7,160,907; budgeted expenditures are approximately $21,000 more at $7,182,000.
“We’ve tried to make [the budget] just as tight as we possibly can; it will be June before we know for sure,” Wilson said.
However, the district is projected to end the year with a carryover balance of more than $2.4 million, Wilson said.
“Right now, we’re not spending anything if we don’t have to have it,” he said.
Wilson said the staff was told at a faculty meeting in August that one possibility, if finances continued to decline, would be a reduction in the district’s workforce.
He said the school board will discuss the possibility in its February or March meeting.
“All staff is rehired by May 1. We want to do things early so people can get out early and find new jobs before their contracts end in June,” Wilson said.“We’re putting together numbers looking at our student-teacher ratios, just looking at what we can cut if we have to put an RIF policy into effect.”
Nonessential, classified employees would be first on the list, he said. Those include maintenance staff members, secretaries and aides.
“Then you start with your certified classroom [employees] … second,” he said. The district has 88 teachers, including 12 who are federally funded, such as Title 1 and special-education teachers.
The superintendent said Perryville is a “close-knit” community and that a decision to lay off employees would not be taken lightly.
School Board President Brian Hill echoed Wilson’s assessment that layoffs would be the last option.
“That’s one thing we’re considering, but that’s not going to be our primary — we’re going to try to do that as a last resort,” he said. “We’re looking at the class sizes, what’s coming up into seventh grade.”
The high school includes grades seven through 12.
“Those things will come into play. We’re not looking at [layoffs] first,” Hill said.
The state Department of Education has projected that the Perryville School District’s enrollment will drop to “the 800s” in the next 10 years, Wilson said.
Hill said he is optimistic. “I don’t see us going down to 800 anytime soon,” he said. “From year to year, we can’t be for certain what it’s going to be. They say it could be 800; it could be 900 or 1,000. It depends on what happens — if we get some housing, if we get some industry. Perry County and Perryville [have] a lot to offer to people.”
He attributed the decline in enrollment to several factors.
“Part of the reason has just been the economy. Perry County does not have just a real big industry,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anybody over here who employs more than 100; the school is the biggest employer. We’re a bedroom community.”
Housing is another problem, Hill said. “One of the things that hurts us is lack of housing. Conway is coming this way; Little Rock is coming this way. If we had more housing, I don’t think the loss of students would be that much.”
Wilson agreed with Hill’s assessment. He said that when he took the position 10 years ago, the school district owned a house, but it was in bad shape, and he didn’t want to live there. That house has since been sold, and Wilson bought a house in Perryville. “We do really have a lack of housing here; it’s pretty sad,” Wilson said.
Hill said students don’t often leave for a neighboring district. “They’re moving out of the area,” he said.
“Another issue — we’ve got 80 students who live in the far eastern area of the county who go to Two Rivers, and Two Rivers isn’t releasing any students to us because that would be loss of money to them. Occasionally, we’ll have students come from Bigelow or Two Rivers, and they want to go back. They’re not going to be happy, and we want them to be as successful as possible, and we’ll release them.”
He said the decline in enrollment isn’t indicative of the education that students receive in the Perryville district.
“That’s one of the things about Perryville. People will see we’re losing students, but we’ve got excellent students. Our [test] scores every year are high,” Hill said.
He said 70 students graduated last year, and they earned more than $1 million in scholarships.
Hill also said the financial situation in the district “isn’t as dire as what it seems on paper.” He pointed to one-time purchases, including buses and a computer program to regulate heating and air, which should save money in the long run, he said.
Wilson and Hill said they had not contacted the Arkansas Department of Education about the district’s financial situation.
“We have not met with them,” Wilson said. “It’s not to the point where we are projecting a negative; we’ve still got $2.4 million in the bank.”
Cindy Smith, program coordinator for fiscal support services at the state Department of Education, said she is in the middle of reviewing all school districts in the state.
“Typically — and just because they’re deficit spending doesn’t mean they’re going into fiscal distress — if their fund balance is reduced over a three-year period, we start looking at that district,” Smith said. “There’s not a fund-balance specific for a district. We have to look at all the different pieces.
“We take each district individually and review everything about that district — fund balances, ADM (average daily membership), their assessment. If it’s a district we’re concerned about, we’ll have a conversation: ‘What have you done? What are you doing? Where are you going?’ It’s a big puzzle with a lot of pieces. It’s a long process.”
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.