Parents are wondering how a $1.1 million deficit might affect Beacon School’s budget in the new academic year.
The first day of school couldn’t come fast enough for the 48 children with developmental disabilities who attend Beacon School — but some parents and faculty have found themselves thinking ahead to Election Day when students came bustling through the school’s doors.
In November, Athens County residents will have the option to vote on a continuing 1.5 mill tax levy to increase funding for the Athens County Board of Developmental Disabilities, providing about $1.3 million per year. The levy was approved by Athens County Commissioners in July, following the board’s realized $1.1 million deficit in December 2013.
The board is responsible for funding not only Beacon, a K-12 school, but services such as ATCO, Passion Works studio and Personnel Plus.
With an annual budget hovering around $6 to $8 million per year, and a $4 million carryover standing as of last spring, board members deduced that they’d only be able to sustain these programs through the next two years without making dramatic cuts.
“The school districts will refer to us the most challenging and difficult-to-deal-with students,” Board Superintendent Eric Young said. “Thats the niche we serve.”
Small changes have been made to the board’s entire budget following a series of stakeholders meetings last March, but Young said he’s hopeful that this levy will be passed — eliminating the chance that deeper cuts will be made.
Right now, he’s not sure where those cuts would be.
“In general, federal and state monies have decreased,” Young said. “What that does is forces us, and other agencies, to rely on local dollar support more than ever. That puts us in a position where we have to compete with other agencies — there are 5 other levies on the ballot for this year. Taxpayers are already burdened, and they can’t pay for everything.”
The levy would cost a $100,000 Athens home $52.50 in taxes per year, Athens County Auditor Jill Thompson said.
Cuts in subsidies from the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities and federal Medicaid dollars have contributed to reduced funding in recent years, Young said. Because of this and previous cuts to levies, the board’s carryover has decreased gradually since 2010.
According to the board’s annual report from last year, ACBDD received more than $8.5 million in revenue, but wound up spending close to $10 million. Costs were largely attributed to personnel salaries and benefits, which accounted for more than half of the board’s expenditures.
“At Beacon, we’ve had a really positive beginning. Everyone’s excited to see the kids again,” said Maryalice Turner, principal of Beacon School. “We’re not talking about the cuts, we’re working hard. There’s a lot of folks participating in the levy work on their own time to drum up support.”
So far, the board has only eliminated already-vacant positions, Young said, and doesn’t plan on cutting current staff.
Turner said she’s met with the teachers, and morale is still high. Each classroom has a teacher, two to three aids and a teaching assistant, as well as about eight students. Curriculum has recently been molded to differentiate for each child’s disability, and teachers are conducting new evaluations. Parent-teacher conferences will also be conducted this year, per Turner’s request.
Recently, each classroom was also fitted with an E-Beam, which is an interactive whiteboard that is easier for children with disabilities to use. Each classroom also has a handful of iPads.
“(The iPads) help with communication a great deal,” Samantha Dunlap, a teacher in the young adult room, said. “One student, whenever she would try to say something, it would turn into gibberish by the end of her sentences. But the iPad would give her pictures to cue her, and she’d read it out loud clear as day.”
Jason Jolley, an assistant professor in the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs, said his daughter, Abigail, might be using the iPads soon enough to combat the fact that she’s mostly non-verbal.
“Abigail really benefits from having consistent one-on-one contact with her educational aid and having consistency in the classroom,” Jolley said. “She gets a lot of use out of the sensory room, which has specialized equipment for the children.”
Jolley is concerned that if the levy doesn’t pass, Beacon could be privatized or see a cutback in services.
Turner said that her department is currently keeping a close eye on the budget, and doing everything they can to be prudent. In the meantime, they have students to teach.
“We can’t allow distractions to interfere with what we do here,” Young said. “That attitude is across all of our agencies, people are positive.”
@EOckerman
eo300813@ohio.edu
