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School District Efficiency Study Morrisville-Eaton Central School

REVIEW OF REPORTOctober 15, 2014

Castallo and Silky Education Consultantswww.castalloandsilky.com

Jessica Cohen & Alan Pole, Consultants

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A Study to Examine the Potential for Creating a Pre-K – 12th Grade Program in

the Morrisville-Eaton Middle/High School

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From an instructional and financial perspective, should the Board of

Education consider creating a Pre-K – 12 program in the Morrisville-Eaton Middle/High School and closing the

Edward R. Andrews Elementary School?

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Advisory CommitteeDavid Andrews Cooper KoehlCorinne Banker Leslie KraftChris Brewer LeeAnne LakeCynthia Busic-Snyder Mary MaitlandChristopher Doroshenko Sarah MarcellusDeborah DushkoJamie McCarthyKyle Graves Michelle MorgilloLauren Haswell Cliff MosesJennifer Hilts David PalmerJessica Jacobs-Broedel Judy ParkerValerie Kampf Jennifer PierceDanielle Kochman Emilie RoherKathy Roher

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Advisory Committee• Included Students, Parents, Teachers, Support Staff,

Administrators, and Community Members• Met monthly for six months• Was asked to:– Attend all meetings– Freely express their points of view– Be a key communicator with stakeholder groups– Be respectful of the committee and study process– Be a positive contributing member in other related

committee activities

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Areas of study

• Student Enrollment and Enrollment Projections• Instructional and Athletic Programs• Facilities• Student Transportation• Staffing• Finance

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Student Enrollment

• Student enrollment has decreased 32.5% from 2008-09 to 2013-14

• Enrollment is projected to increase from 715 in 2013-14 to 752 in 2021 (+37 students, 5.1%)

• Elementary enrollment will increase while middle/high enrollment will remain relatively constant

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Instructional Programs• Middle/High School: 36% of sections have 9

or less students, 48% have 10 – 19 students, and 15% have 20 or more students.

• 67 high school students are in 19 BOCES CTE classes.

• Decreasing enrollment has meant smaller class sizes, not a reduction in number of classes

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Elementary ClassroomsThere are 27 core academic classes.

Combining classes will increase class size beyond desired limits.

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Facilities• An addition to the Middle/High School would

have to be built in order to accommodate all of the elementary school classrooms.

• This would require the addition of at least 26 classrooms, a gym, and a cafeteria.

• Estimated budget for the addition is approximately $24 million before state aid

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ARCHITECT’S ESTIMATES FOR ADDITION TO MIDDLE/HIGH SCHOOL

High school renovations $ 2,353,50026 new classrooms & storage 14,713,125New elementary gym, bleachers, etc 2,700,000Expanded cafeteria 779,625Furniture, fixtures, & Equipment 975,000Site development 712,500Utilities-power, sanitary, storm, etc 525,000Miscellaneous 750,000Relocate district offices 275,625Contingency 215,625

TOTAL BUDGET $24,000,000

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Transportation• Moving from a double trip to a single trip

busing system may occur whether the district has one building or two.

• Moving to a single trip system will be revenue neutral due to high state aid for transportation

• Difficulty in finding bus drivers will present problems if the district changed to a single trip system.

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Staffing• Because significant reductions have occurred,

there is limited potential to reduce administrative or instructional positions without changing the instructional program.

• Increasing the square footage at the HS will limit the number of support staff reductions to less than 3.0 FTE

• Approximately $170,000 can be realized by efficiencies from reducing staff.

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Finances• Approximately 93% of school district revenue

comes from state aid and local taxes• The school district budget has remained

relatively constant over the past 5 years• The district is receiving less state aid today than

it was 5 years ago• The district has continued to use more of its

fund balance to control taxes in each of the past 5 years

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Finances• It would cost approximately $1,100,000/year for

the next 20 years to move the elementary school • After accounting for program savings, the net cost

of moving the elementary school would be approximately $929,440/year or an increase in taxes of 26.6%

• Whether or not the district decides to move the elementary school, there will be facilities improvements to be considered of approximately $8,480,838

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Recommendations1. It is recommended that the district not close

the Edward R. Andrews Elementary School and move the elementary grades to the middle/high school campus

2. It is recommended that the district's facilities committee reconvene to review the building condition survey and provide input to the Board of Education regarding future capital needs.

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Questions