MOUNT VERNON – Members of the Mount Vernon Education Association will receive a 2.5% base salary increase each year for the next three years.
Mount Vernon City Schools’ board approved a three year negotiated contract with MVEA for the 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years Monday.
“I know it’s been a rough year for all of us,” said MVEA representative and high school math teacher Darcy Nesbit, “but it helps to know we’re all on the same page.”
In other business Monday, district treasurer Gary Hankins presented an updated five-year financial forecast, which projects the district will enter deficit spending in 2024, sooner than Hankins’ previous projections presented in fall 2021.
“That’s the result of negotiating new contracts, just inflation in general and some other things,” Hankins said.
The district is currently using federal COVID-19 relief dollars to pay many salaries, and once that money is gone, those salary expenses will fall back into the general fund. In order to balance the budget in 2026, the district would need to cut its 2026 projected expenses by 8.2%.
“We’ll have to put on the ballot at some point, probably in 2024, an operating levy,” Hankins said.
By the end of the current fiscal year, 2022, a revenue surplus is expected by $3,837,408.
School districts in Ohio are required to submit five-year forecasts twice annually.
Similar to other districts in Knox County and across Ohio, many changes seen between fall 2021 and this spring are due to the Fair School Funding Plan.
Under the plan, per-pupil costs are based on actual expenses, calculated on a district-by-district basis. Previously, districts saw deductions for students who decided to attend school out of district, but now districts will be directly given a complete net amount based on enrollment.
Regarding other financial items addressed Monday, the board accepted donations, including an anonymous $1,000 to pay for any fees incurred by high school seniors and 25 books valued at $211 in memory of Marcia Savage, former teacher at Pleasant Street Elementary, on behalf of Savage’s friends at at Pleasant Street.
The board also accepted book donations through its memorial book fund, where books are donated to Mount Vernon school libraries in memory of an employee, immediate family member of an employee or student who died.
The high school library will receive “Extraordinary Dogs” in memory of Ralph Minard, the father of high school Spanish teacher Dena Hooley. Pleasant Street Elementary will receive “Pizza School: A Kids’ Cookbook for Aspiring” in memory of Dan Telek, the husband of assistant to the treasurer Lynette Telek.
Dan Emmett Elementary will receive “I’m Trying to Love Rocks” in memory of Peter Crandall, former Dan Emmett custodian.
Regarding personnel, the board accepted five resignations, added three substitute teachers for the remainder of the school year and approved six staff members to start next school year, including replacements for recent retirees.
