Clark-Pleasant Schools is looking to hire more school resource officers and improve radio communication for its police and bus drivers next year.
The proposed budget of $81.3 million is an increase of almost $5 million from the previous budget, with increases of $2.5 million in the education fund, about $900,000 in the operations fund, and $1.4 million in debt service, according to school officials.
The money comes from property, income and sales taxes such as vehicle registration taxes and the bulk of that increase in spending is due to adding staff and paying for benefits and salary increases. Clark-Pleasant will also be in the second year of an eight-year property tax increase voters approved to pay for school safety.
Clark-Pleasant schools is not taking on any additional building projects next year that will require it to go into debt, but will buy more school buses, resulting in the district borrowing more money, business director Jay Staley said.
The overall budget increase is a result of more students attending Clark-Pleasant schools meaning more money coming in from state government, which funds salaries, supplies and technology and professional development by assigning each district a per-student payment from the state.
More people are moving into school district and properties are increasing in value, also contributing to that budget increase through greater tax revenue, Staley said.
Next year will be the second year of the schools collecting money from property taxes for its public safety referendum, which 57 percent of voters in Clark and Pleasant townships approved in November, increasing their property taxes by 10 cents for every $100,000 of assessed value.
The district collected $1.7 million in property tax money from the referendum this year. The district will have the same collection this year as last, but will collect more on excise taxes from both commercial and personal vehicle registration fees, bumping the referendum budget up to $1.8 million, Staley said.
The biggest changes come in how the district plans to spend those referendum dollars. The district plans to spend about 30 percent less on its school resource and police officer program next year than it planned to this year, and plans to spend more than three times as much as what it did this year on safety monitoring and communication, according to school officials.
Last year, the Clark-Pleasant school board approved a 2019 budget that split referendum dollars three ways: $1.05 million for the school resource officer program, including the Clark-Pleasant Police Department, $370,000 for mental health services and personnel, and $220,000 for safety monitoring and communication.
The district does not plan to spend all of its school resource officer budget this year. The money Clark-Pleasant schools saves this year, which hasn’t been calculated yet, will go to safety equipment for officers such as vests and guns, monitoring, including security cameras, and improving communication not only among police but also between school staff and school bus drivers with two-way radios. Clark-Pleasant schools also wants to hire two more school resource officers in 2020, so each school building can have its own officer, Staley said.
In 2020, the district plans to set aside $665,000 for school resource officers and police, $420,000 for mental health services and $725,000 for safety monitoring and communication.
The district doesn’t plan to cut any of its school resource officer program, but instead overestimated how much it would spend on those officers when crafting the 2019 budget, Staley said.
Clark-Pleasant schools originally planned to have eight full-time officers as part of the newly-formed Clark-Pleasant Police Department, including wages, benefits and vehicles for those officers. Each officer, except for the chief, makes $50,000 per year and police vehicles cost an average of $30,000 including lighting and striping. The Clark-Pleasant Police Department has three full-time police officers, with three additional school resource officers from local departments, Staley said.
By employing off-duty officers, the district saves money because it doesn’t have to pay for their vehicles, he said.
“Since that budget went through we adopted a hybrid approach of using our own officers and using off-duty officers,” Staley said. “By doing so, it’s not costing as much money to have the same number of staff we would have if they were own officers.”
With the increase in money for safety monitoring and communication, Clark-Pleasant schools can improve its radio communication system next year with the two-way radios, meaning more efficient communication as people can reach each other more easily. The rest of the money will go toward additional training and supplies for officers, he said.
The $50,000 increase in mental health spending will go towards additional mental health services and professional development, Staley said.
The school board will conduct a public hearing on the proposed budget with time for public comment during its Sept. 17 board meeting. The school board will vote on the budget during its Oct. 22 board meeting.
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The 2020 proposed Clark-Pleasant Community Schools budget:
Total Budget:$81.3 million
Education;$40.8 million
Operations;$22.7 million
Debt Service;$15.5 million
Rainy Day;$500,000
Referendum: $1.8 million
- School resource officer program;$655,000
- Mental health program;$420,000
- Safety monitoring and communication;$725,000
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