BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — The Martin County Board of Education approved the 2024-2025 tentative budget and heard an update from finance officer Earnest Hale in a special meeting May 28.
“Good news,” Hale announced. “We had an increase in SEEK [Support Education Excellence in Kentucky] funding due to the fact that [the General Assembly] raised the per pupil rate.”
The raise from $4,200 per student to $4,326 translates to $9,288,870 in SEEK funding for Martin County, an increase of $582,577.
According to Hale, the district lost more than 10% of its students compared to the 2018 school year, totaling 200 students during 2019-2024, but was able to “claw back” some of the loss due to a formula approved by the Kentucky General Assembly.
“Thankfully, we did not lose 10% for 2025 and did not receive the one-third ‘claw back,’” said Hale. “Going forward in 2025, we’re trued up on student loss.”
Transportation increased to 90% and will be $199,882 for 2025.
“We’re getting close to 100% on transportation,” noted Hale.
Tier 1 increased to $254,000. Hale explained that Tier 1 is determined by an equalization rate by which funding is spread out between larger and smaller districts. Larger districts with larger tax bases “really don’t need that much SEEK money,” he said. “Smaller districts like us can receive extra funds that the big districts don’t need.”
Board Chairman Mickey McCoy questioned who decided on the Tier 1 distribution.
“It’s just a formula that they set up years back,” said Hale. “When the KERA years ended, they went to this new SEEK formula.”
Concerns
Hale reviewed district financial concerns. Among those, salary/ fringe benefits increased by approximately $320,000 due to step increases. Also, the loss of 33 students from last year translated to a loss of $142,758 in SEEK funding.
“Absenteeism is hurting us badly,” commented Hale.
Expanding on absenteeism, Hale said the district would lose $68,956 in SEEK funding per percent of absenteeism in the 2025 school year. A 95% attendance rate means a loss of $344,782.20; 93% attendance translates to a loss of $482,6895; a 91% attendance rate results in a loss of $620,607; and an 89% attendance rate, which is the district’s current attendance rate, means a loss of $758,520.
“We’re going to lose around $760,000 in SEEK funding, which also rolls into titles and all of those, because of our low attendance rate,” stated Hale.
Board member Bowie Clark asked about the district’s attendance rate before COVID.
Superintendent Larry James answered, “A good year, 93% or a little bit above. Anywhere from 92.89 to 93.1 in a great year, so about 93% districtwide. Now we’re at 89%.”
McCoy mentioned a topic that came up in a previous meeting about kids living next door to one of the county schools and not showing up. He stated that in past years, the school district received more help from the local judicial system.
“Is there any foreseeable change in the inactivity?” he asked.
James said he recently met with Assistant Martin County Attorney Lynette Muncy, and they had laid out a plan, as recent changes in the law will expedite the legal truancy process.
“They’ll come after you sooner now,” James said. “It used to be—our [director of pupil personnel] was telling me—that students got referred and would go through one committee and then before you knew it, the year was gone and nothing of substance really happened. Then they started all over again. Kids would go through it for years and nothing really happened as far as punishment or anything. Now that has changed. It’s going to be that we get after them sooner.”
James added, “You know when kids are in elementary school and even middle schools, it’s the parents’ fault when they don’t make them come to school.”
Board member Lorna Cassady agreed, saying, “When they’re juniors and seniors it might be hard for a parent to put them out there, but when they’re little it’s the parents.”
James noted that in past years, elementary attendance ran 94% or 95%, middle school 93% and high school 90% or 91%.
“Now it’s 89% and the high school is even less than that,” he said. “One, it’s money and two, it’s hard to teach kids when they’re not there. It affects everything.”
Continuing the discussion of district concerns, Hale stated that local property assessments and the economy are “not growing that much.” He added, “Our property assessments last year went up just a little bit. Hopefully, they’ll go up just a little bit more. They’re kinda expecting it to be flat this year.”
Utility costs are increasing, noted Hale, who also expects the cost of the district’s property insurance to increase by 15-20%
Hale concluded that the price of “everything,” including fuel, food, food services and all services, had increased. “It’s just inflation,” he remarked.
Bond payments for 2025 will be $1,494,216.
Positives
Positives for 2024, according to Hale, include the completion of LED lighting retrofitting at all of the schools. The district also has three new buses, with one new special needs bus on order and due to arrive in December. Hale added that all HVAC units and controls districtwide are online and running.
“The climate in our schools is better than it’s been in a long time,” he commented.
Major painting and cleaning projects have been completed in all of the schools, key mechanical components have all been replaced, and access controls are in all schools.
Other positives included another mention of the increase in SEEK funding of $126 per child and the solar project at Martin County High School.
“We’re getting ready to go back out for bids on the solar power system for the high school,” said Hale. “We’ve got a prospect on that.”
James joined the conversation, saying, “We’re actually opening on Thursday,” while McCoy added, “At 2.”
Hale announced that ESSER funding would end in September.
“That’s both good and bad,” he said. “It’s really good for me because that thing is hard to report on, but we’ve had a lot of funding that came through ESSER that’s helped our schools out tremendously.”
Hale continued with his list, saying the district had budgeted to replace five older HVAC units at Martin County Middle School and five at Eden Elementary.
“Most of those units are really old and we can start replacing them with new models that work better and more efficiently.”
McCoy asked if the HVAC work was done in-house.
“For the most part, yes,” replied Hale. “Now there are some units that are too big for our guys to tackle and we farm that out, but the small stuff, we do it.”
Hale and district maintenance director Jason Jewell have begun working on Energy Star metering.
“We’ve had this Energy Class prize for a year and finished it up,” said Hale. “One of the things that they’re really pushing for in energy savings is to use this Energy Star portfolio that the Department of Energy has. You key in your usages on various things to see how your building rates compared to other like-buildings across the U.S. … It helps you identify things that you need to work on to bring that score up—things that will help you be more energy efficient. We’re starting that portfolio manager for all of the schools. The high school is already in it; that was done by our architects.”
Hale is also instituting credit card payment software and will start training for that in July. Parents will be able to pay for student purchases online using a credit card and will not need to send cash to school.
“You didn’t have that opportunity before, but now we are going to have that,” remarked Hale. “It doesn’t cost us anything. The transaction fee covers the card.”
Cassady asked if the district would charge a transaction fee.
“They do, the credit card company,” said Hale.
In concluding his presentation, Hale reported the district contingency is $1,290,000.
“Everything is rolling pretty good,” he said.
McCoy asked, “What percentage is that?”
“It’s about 9-1/2 or 10,” said Hale.
Employee raises
James addressed the subject of employee raises.
“I know you’ve seen and probably heard about other districts giving raises,” he said. “In the last eight years with our certified, we’ve given a 2% raise and then we’ve given a 5% raise. So that’s a 7% raise in the last eight years for certified.”
James said classified employees had received a 2% raise and then a $2 per hour raise, “which is a really significant raise.”
He continued, “We’ve lost 200 kids and our attendance is 89%. We just can’t and shouldn’t do anything at this point. In a year we will see where we’re at, but it doesn’t look like we’re going to be able to give a raise this year.”
The superintendent added that he, too, had noticed other districts giving raises.
“They’re growing and doing big things,” he said. “We did a big thing two years ago. That was significant and nobody else was doing that two years ago… We’re on a good foundation and want to stay that way. Things may change for the better, but we don’t want to do anything and have to raise taxes in the fall. I don’t think anyone wants to go through that.”
Other business
The board accepted the School Facility Construction Commission’s offer of $12 million for Inez Elementary School in accordance with House Bill 6. This brings total funding to $29.5 million for the district’s oldest facility, which has wiring and plumbing that were completed in the 1980s.
The board also approved a memorandum of understanding with the Unite Service Corps of Operation Unite.
“We’ve had this the last two years,” James said. “It’s a good program. I think we pay $6,850 a year, and Unite pays the rest. In the last couple of years we’ve had a young lady who is going to be a teacher working in our schools. This is a great experience for her and the kids.” Dena James said the young lady tutors math and, in addition to the $6,850 from the school district, receives about $6,000 in college vouchers.
Board members approved a memorandum of understanding with the Kentucky Department of Education for the Martin County Area Technology Center principal’s salary.
“We’ve been doing this several years now,” said James. “It’s for the ATC principal. They basically pay the majority of his salary. We still add a little bit to it, but they just pay us.” In the past, the state paid the ATC principal directly but changed to this method.
Finishing the agenda, the BOE approved an orientation and mobility services contract.
Dena James explained that this was for a person to come in and work with students who have visual impairments and use a cane to navigate their environment.
“She comes in once or twice a month and pulls our students to work with them,” Dena James said. “As they get older, she, along with our teacher for the visually impaired, will take them to Williamson or somewhere where there are lights, stop signs and streets that they can learn to navigate. She does a good job.”
McCoy asked about the number of students in the program.
“Not that many right now,” said Dena James. “We have a few—less than five.”