GOSHEN COUNTY – On Monday evening, members of the Goshen County School Board of Trustees gathered in the central administration office at 6 p.m. for a special board meeting and board work session.

Chairman Lena Moeller called the meeting to order and the Pledge of Allegiance followed thereafter. A motion was made to approve the agenda for the meeting as presented which was quickly seconded and carried by vote.

Under item three, the board accepted the staff resignations of Torrington High School math teacher, Eric Hansen and Torrington High School counselor, Alaria Schnase. Both resignations would be effective at the end of the 2024-2025 school year. 

During the discussion, board member Kate Stienbock explained she was sad to see Schnase go and further stated Schanase had done a lot of good. 

The board voted in favor of accepting the resignations and moved on to item four of the agenda where they approved offering a teaching contact for the 2025-2026 school year to Andrew Hultquist as a math teacher at Southeast Jr./Sr. High School, pending certification. 

With nothing further on the agenda, Moeller then adjourned the special board meeting and the board entered into a work session for the preliminary 2025-2026 school year. 

Marcy Cates, district business manager addressed the board providing a rundown and review in preparation for Friday’s salary relations committee meeting.

“Please understand, I’m going to talk through some projections and today is March 31. We have three more months before the fiscal year is completed, so I’ve done my projections and there could still be a few changes but typically it’s pretty accurate,” Cates said before sharing the first slide. 

“The revenue I am showing for you, and I’ve shared with some of you and talked through, our revenue came in higher that what it was budgeted,” Cates said. “Which is a good thing.”

Cates went on to explain what made the difference. 

“The two outliers which caused that there was difference in the guarantee received from the state by the amount of $500,000. That’s very top on foundation guarantee line,” Cates explained referencing the spreadsheet presented. “Then, we did have the insurance proceeds that we dealt with. Some of you might not be aware, we had the fire at the Southeast Ag Shop, it was delayed in getting those proceeds to the district. Then when it was all settled it ended up being $300,000 more than what I thought final settlement would be. So, there’s are increase in revenue.” 

Cates moved on to expenditures.

“It was a unique year and the uniqueness of the year was the grant funding that we dealt with that we worked through this year. There were a number of potions that were budgeted and or not filled or that were moved into various grant funding in order to preserve general fund dollars,” Cates explained. “So, when you look at the base salaries, they’re at the top. The left side is the budget for fiscal year ’25, the right side is the projected completion of fascial year ’25. There’s about $400,000 in positions that were budgeted that weren’t filled.”

Cates stated there was an interventionist at Torrington Middle School moved to grant funding. A special education position was also shared between Lingle and Southeast which was posted and unable to be filled. Cates also noted there was a mid-hire resignation midyear which wasn’t able to be filled. Cates explained two counselors were funded by mental health grant money midyear. The district was able to preserve general funding. 

“Then we had special ed paras and custodians on classified side that were delayed in getting those positions hired,” Cates explained. “All of that together generates dollars. What looks like a reduction between actual and budget.”

“Temporary salaries, that really is a function people getting in and filling positions but some of the other things I want to point out to you, large outliers is the health insurance cost. If you look there, we have another significant savings in that we had dollars budgeted for people to take health insurance and for whatever reason, people in positions chose not to take health insurance or we’re taking it at a different level than what it was budgeted. So, there is a significant saving there.”

Moving on to food service, Cates explained there was a cost increase as well as a production increase. 

“There was a cost on food service. We had $350,000 budgeted in order to sustain the community eligibility provision of the food service program. It appears to be more like $450,000 and that’s a function of additional food costs than when we first we into as well as a large increase production. The meals is astronomical in my opinion in that we had 196,600 meals served through March. This time last year we had 136,000 meals,” Cates explained. “That’s an increase of 60,000 meals.”

Cates also noted out of district placement had increased or appears to be increasing by double. Further noting $250,000 was budgeted.

“We do have additional expenses that just kind of comes with the nature of it,” Cates said. 

Moving on to carry over, Cates provided the board with a history overview. 

“When we look at the history of carryover, this is the money that the state allows districts to retain, based upon the guarantee that they receive from the state,” Cates explained. “The amount that we could carry over was 15% up until fascial year ’21. So, if you look these years prior there was a point in time when the district nearly had no money or no carryover. We got it to 19.5 and what I just shared with you we were looking at 20.95 when we end this year at the present time.”

“What you need to be aware – and I kind of talked through some of this with the ERATE purchase last week. We have what we call pre-97 money, which is in column c, those are dollars that the district held in 1997 when the foundation model was totally redesigned. The money that the district had at that point in time was earmarked and it was such that if we needed to spend it. So, if we got into a position where we had no money and we were spending down into the $775,000. That was money that couldn’t be replenished. But if we didn’t spend it, it just continued to be there for us.”

Cates explained the district can carry up to 30% of their contingency money. 

“So, we had to the two added together which puts us at 6.5%. What I think is really important and I wish I could go up to the prior slide but, if you think about an out of district placement, we had 250,000 budgeted. We had 500,000 projected to be expended. That 250,000, if we were getting into a position, we could use carryover for this year and then receive those funds the following year. That way, we’re not tying that up into our budget and not having those funds available for salary relations, when we meet Friday night,” Cates said. “So that’s one of the reasons why we have the carryover available to us.” 

Cates noted if Goshen County were a large mineral district, the district would go through abatements and mineral companies’ assessments, there could be an issue receiving funds. 

“So far, sounds like all good news,” Moeller said. 

“You know what, this, as I was putting it together, this to me is a very good year, yes,” Cates responded. 

Discussion continued until the meeting was then adjourned at 7 p.m.