LINCOLN PARISH SCHOOL BOARD
Ruston, Louisiana
REGULAR SESSION
Tuesday, March 7, 2023 6:00 p.m.
The Lincoln Parish School Board met in Regular Session on Tuesday, March 7, 2023, at 6:00 p.m. at the Lincoln Parish School Board, 410 S. Farmerville Street, Ruston, Louisiana. Members present were Mr. Otha Anders, Mr. Clark Canterbury, Ms. Donna Doss, Mr. David Ferguson, Ms. Lynda Henderson, Mr. George Mack, Jr., Mr. Joe Mitcham, and Mr. Hunter Smith.
Ms. Debbie Abrahm, Mr. Danny Hancock, Mr. Gregg Phillips and Dr. Danielle Williams were absent. These members were attending the LSBA Annual Convention in Lake Charles.
President Mitcham called the meeting to order, and Mr. Anders gave the invocation. Mr. Ricky Edmiston led in the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag.
Upon a motion by Mr. Anders, seconded by Mr. Smith, the Board unanimously voted to adopt the agenda as printed.
Upon a motion by Ms. Doss, seconded by Mr. Smith, the Board unanimously voted to approve the minutes of the Regular Session held on February 7, 2023, as presented.
Juanita Duke, Chief Financial Officer, announced that the audit of our fiscal year 2021-2022 was complete. It was submitted to the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s office for review and was released last month. She stated it was overall a good report, with auditors issuing an unmodified opinion in their report, which is the best opinion we can receive. She expressed her sincere appreciation to the staff in the business office who work tirelessly to provide data to auditors to prepare the financial report, and for the great work everyone does on a daily basis enabling us to receive this type of opinion. Ms. Duke also thanked the auditors, Allen, Green & Williamson, and in particular, Ms. Amy Tynes, auditor in charge, and asked Ms. Tynes to present the auditor’s report.
Ms. Tynes presented the audit report of the School Board’s financial statement for the year ending June 30, 2022. She called attention to two reports, the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report and the Single Audit Report, and briefly went over the results of these audit reports.
In the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the auditor issued a clean opinion, or an unmodified audit opinion. This is the best opinion possible, which means that the Board’s financial condition, position, and operations were fairly presented in the financial statements without any modifications. Ms. Tynes reviewed the government-wide results, which includes all funds of the School Board, including all capital assets, debt, and other liabilities. She pointed out that if we took everything owned to pay debt off, the school board would actually fall short $106 million. This deficit is caused by the two largest liabilities, pension and health care of employees. She shared that the LPSB’s long-term liabilities include other post employee benefits ($102 million), and the School Board’s share of the state’s pension liabilities ($41.8 million).
She then presented the General Fund and pointed out that the General Fund is the only place in the report to find the amount of funds that are not restricted. For individual funds, she reported the General Fund had an unassigned ending fund balance as of June 30, 2022 of $13.8 million. This represents approximately 24% of the General Fund expenditures which is a good fund balance. General Fund revenue for fiscal 2022 was $60 million and that is an increase of about $5 million for the 2022 fiscal year. The 2000 Ad Valorem fund had an increase in fund balance of $732,000. Next, she detailed the Title I Fund, which does not carry a fund balance. These funds are cost reimbursement funds for whatever cost per the grant and the budget award by LDOE. The funds are spent per the budget and are reimbursed. We actually had $3.8 million in expenses and this $3.8 million was matched from the Louisiana Department of Education. All other funds are combined as Nonmajor Governmental Funds. Ms. Tynes explained further that these funds had an increase in fund balance of $2.2 million.
She went on to explain the Internal Service Statement for self-insured Group Health Insurance and Workers’ Compensation. The total revenue in premiums received was $12.6 million, which is a decrease of approximately $1.3 million from the previous year. Claims and other costs were $14.3 million, an increase of $2.5 million. For the 2022 fiscal year, the Internal Service Fund had a loss; however, the ending fund balance was $3.4 million.
Ms. Tynes explained further that the Nonmajor Governmental Funds consist of funds for Special Revenues (related to grants and taxes), Debt Service, and Capital Projects. Special Revenue Funds consist of School Food Service, and other federal programs, such as special education funds, sales tax funds, school activity funds, and maintenance funds. Debt Service Funds are restricted to pay bonds, and Capital Projects are funds set aside for “brick and mortar”.
Moving on to the Single Audit Report, Ms. Tynes expressed that each year they take a “snapshot” and list out all the various buckets of federal dollars that LPSB receives. The district received a total of $14.6 million federal dollars in fiscal year 2022. The financial statement audit includes any testing of financial transactions, testing of internal controls, and testing of state compliance. An unmodified opinion was issued with no deficiencies related to internal controls, and testing of state compliance. For the federal programs, the Education Stabilization Funds, Title I, the Childcare Development Fund Cluster, as well as the Emergency Connectivity Fund were tested. An unmodified opinion was issued on these programs; however, there was one significant finding (not a material weakness) related to reporting of ESSER Fund expenditures to the state. She explained that when ESSER funds were first received, district funds were already spent related to Covid 19 in the initial fiscal year. It was determined later that ESSER funds could be used to reimburse the district for its initial costs. When the expenditure reports for this were submitted to LDOE, these initial fiscal year’s expenditures, which were submitted for reimbursement later after the initial fiscal year closed, were not included in total expenditures. All claims and other grant information were filed appropriately. After touching on Agreed-Upon Procedures and highlighting some of that information, Ms. Tynes expressed how awesome the LPSB team is. She appreciated how helpful everyone was to help get the audit accomplished, and in a timely manner.
The following personnel items were reported by Dr. Doris Lewis, Director of Human Resources:
1. Retirement of the following:
Donna Walters, teacher at LP Early Childhood Center, effective August 13, 2023;
Charlene Flucas, secretary at Ruston High, effective June 10, 2023;
Kay White, school counselor at Ruston High, effective July 1, 2023;
James Herren, special education teacher at Ruston High, effective September 16, 2023;
Tracy King, elementary teacher at Simsboro School, effective May 27, 2023;
Vickie Elliott, health and physical education teacher at Simsboro School, effective July 8, 2023; and
Kristina Kassab, gifted education teacher, effective August 14, 2023.
2. Resignation of the following:
Amber Lovitt, elementary teacher at Hillcrest Elementary, effective May 27, 2023;
Emilee Clason, elementary teacher at Hillcrest Elementary, effective May 27, 2023; and
Ashley Sandino, school psychologist with Pupil Appraisal, effective June 10, 2023.
3. Employment of the following:
Kerry Blakemore, bus operator, replacing Justin Buggs who resigned, effective February 16, 2023; and
Latrice Gray, bus operator, replacing Billy Jarmon who retired, effective February 16, 2023;
4. Resignation of Paul Corbin, Jr., Head Custodian at Choudrant Elementary, effective February 11, 2023.
5. Employment of Aaron Johnson, Head Custodian at Choudrant Elementary, replacing Paul Corbin, Jr. who resigned, effective February 21, 2023.
6. Retirement of Patsy Lewis, cafeteria clerk/technician at Cypress Springs Elementary, effective June 3, 2023.
Juanita Duke, Chief Financial Officer, reported that total sales tax collections for the month of February 2023 were up 5.28%. Total collections fiscal year-to-date were up 4.65% over last year.
Moving on to the January 2023 financial report, Ms. Duke stated that the total fund balance in the General Operating funds is $32.1 million. The fund balance of all Special Revenue Funds, grant programs, maintenance, and operating funds, is $22.7 million for a total combined fund balance of $54.9 million. The Undesignated Fund balance of General Operating Funds is 22.5% of its budgeted operating expenditures, or $21.9 million.
Ms. Duke reported on the Health Insurance Fund, stating that this is the first month of the new plan year, which is reported on a calendar year basis. Total plan contributions for the month of January were $1.2 million. Total plan expenses were $1.28 million, so we have exceeded our contributions by approximately $64,000 for the month of January.
Following a month of studying a policy revision, John Young, Assistant Superintendent, recommended the board members approve the proposed changes to the policy manual, BH – School Board Ethics for review.
Upon a motion by Ms. Henderson, seconded by Mr. Canterbury, the Board unanimously voted to approve the policy revision BH – School Board Ethics.
Ricky Edmiston, Supervisor of Auxiliary Services, stated that each year we recognize the importance of support personnel in the parish including school bus operators, food service employees, custodians, secretaries, clerical personnel, teacher aides, bus aides, maintenance technicians, paraprofessionals, and others that are vital to the efficient operation of our school system. He recommended that the Board adopt a Resolution designating April 24-28, 2023, as Support Personnel Week.
Upon a motion by Ms. Doss, seconded by Mr. Anders, the Board unanimously voted to adopt the following:
RESOLUTION
That the Lincoln Parish School Board designate the week of April 24-28, 2023, as Support Personnel Week in Lincoln Parish and copies of this Resolution be sent to each school in Lincoln Parish and also made a part of the official minutes of the Lincoln Parish School Board.
Debbie Pender, Technology Coordinator, reported to the Board that the school district received proposals from three different vendors for Category 2 Services for the Choudrant High School Sports Complex Fiber Project.
Following a review and evaluation of each of the three proposals, Ms. Pender said they recommend the Board approve and enter into contract with Hunt Telecommunications, A Uniti Company for the Category 2 Services for Choudrant High School Sports Complex Fiber Project.
Upon a motion by Mr. Smith, seconded by Ms. Doss, the Board unanimously voted to approve and enter into contract with Hunt Telecommunications, A Uniti Company for Category 2 Services for the Choudrant High School Sports Complex Fiber Project.
Mr. Young asked the Board to consider policy revisions. He stated that during the revision of Suspension and Expulsion policies based on Act 473 in 2021, language in JDE, Expulsion, under Additional Reasons for Expulsion, was changed in error to delete item #4. JDE, Expulsion, has been revised to add that language back into the policy. In doing so, although not there previously, language should also be added into policy JDD, Suspension, for consistency. He stated that this information would be studied for the month of March and would be voted on at the April Board meeting.
In a Report of the Superintendent, Mr. Durrett said that:
1. ACT testing took place today for all 11th grade and some 12th grade students in the parish. In addition, 10th graders took the PreACT. Despite a few computer glitches, this testing was completed.
2. The Ruston High School boys’ basketball team will play in the State semifinal game on Thursday in Lake Charles. We will close all Ruston city schools on Thursday, beginning at 11:00 to allow fans time to travel to the game. If the team wins, they will advance to the state championship game, which will be played on Saturday.
3. Spring Break is next week. All offices and schools will be closed. We will return to work on March 20th.
After several comments from board members, the meeting adjourned at 6:49 p.m. on a motion by Mr. Canterbury.
_______________________________ _______________________________
Ricky Durrett, Secretary Joe Mitcham, President