• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Janesville school referendum spending explained

Photo

Timothy F. Cullen

Photo

Keith Pennington

Photo

Peggy Sheridan

JANESVILLE — After two weeks of hearing public complaints via e-mail and at the grocery store, the Janesville School Board is reassured that the price tag for construction at Craig and Parker high schools was appropriate.

But the board isn’t going to rush into the next step.

Board members Tuesday night took no action to move the small amount of earned interest left over from the $70.795 million referendum into the district’s operating budget. Nor did the board vote to declare the project complete.

Instead, the board will wait until March 22 to hear from builder JP Cullen. The board could take action that night to put the referendum project to bed.

The issue came to light two weeks ago when board member Tim Cullen said more than $3 million was spent above the original referendum amount seemingly without approval of the school board.

Cullen is the chairman of the finance committee.

Voters in 2006 approved borrowing $70.8 million to expand and remodel Craig and Parker high schools. Those projects were completed last fall.

Cullen has said he was told several million dollars were spent above the borrowed amount. But no one on the board seemed to remember approving that spending.

District CFO Keith Pennington said he spent more than 30 hours combing through invoices, change orders and videos of old school board meetings to make sure he was confident and comfortable with the accounting.

And he is, he told the board.

“They are the numbers. They’re right. We checked them,” Pennington said.

Board member Peggy Sheridan said the board jumped the gun two weeks ago by going public with tentative information. That gave the public the perception that something underhanded was going on, Sheridan said.

“Then, if we find out it’s nothing, we’ve gotten everyone upset,” Sheridan said.

Cullen defended himself, saying it’s better to go public with what looks like a big problem that turns out to be nothing than to report a small problem that turns into a big one.

Cullen and other board members said Pennington and District Administrator Karen Schulte seem to be earnest about carefully explaining projects and spending to the board in the future.

“I don’t think we’re going to see this again with this board and with this administration,” Cullen said.

The amount of interest left over from the project is less than what the district had anticipated. As late as last week, the district anticipated as much as $200,000. The actual amount is $26,000.

The board could use that money to replenish the district’s operating fund.

BY THE NUMBERS

Referendum borrowing approved $70.795 million

Spent on capital project through referendum $70.795 million

Interest earned $1.969 million

Interest spent $1.943 million

Interest remaining $26,000

Construction/repair work labeled “maintenance” .$1.74 million

IN OTHER BUSINESS

The Janesville School Board on Tuesday night got its first look at the district’s staffing plan for the 2010-2011 school year.

District Personnel Director Steve Sperry presented to the board a plan to meet the district’s student/teacher ratios.

Board members will study the plans and recommendations and could approve a plan on April 13.

Preliminary recommendations include:

-- A decrease of 4.0 full-time teachers at the elementary schools for a student/teacher ratio average of 20:1. That’s an increase of 0.4 to the actual 2009-10 ratio.

-- An increase of 0.4 positions at the middle schools.

-- An increase of 1.3 positions at the high schools. The middle and high school increases would be the result of student choices for elective classes, Sperry said.