SAC meeting 3-3-15 minutes
1. Peter Mosby displayed on the projector screen and discussed the present year Rock Ridge budget. He explained:
- The difference between discretionary and non-discretionary funds. Non-discretionary meaning the school has no control over how to spend these except towards designated.
- There was a deficit of $52,774 which was attributed to the issues from last year and a decline in enrollment. The district has on more than one occasion, stated they would help the school correct this deficit.
- Most of the nondiscretionary funds are salaries. The district uses averages for budget purposes.
- Supplies and printing are examples of non-discretionary funds with printing being the most expensive of them all.
- If discretionary funds are not used, they roll over to the next year. If non-discretionary funds are not used, they are lost as they are typically part of grants and the like.
- All budgetary monies are based on estimates of the number of kids expected to attend school and then adjusted based upon actual attendance after October count.
2. The committee discussed the opening of a nearby charter school. Peter stated that RRE was the least affected in the district by this opening.
3. The topic of class size was discussed with Peter saying his ideal class size would be between 20–25. Currently some classes are at 17. This is too low to make the budget work. The probability is high that the student decrease in numbers is due to the opening of the charter school. This will more than likely mean a reduction of staff for the 2015-2016 school year.
4. Briefly discussed marketing strategies and it was mentioned that approximately 280 have downloaded the new RRE app.
5. Next meeting will be April 21st. The agenda for that meeting will be next years budget and future plans.