December 18 School Board Meeting Highlights

Here are some of the highlights from the December 18, Ephrata School Board meeting. Members of the public are always welcome to attend board meetings. A list of meeting dates and times, board agendas and other information can be found at: https://www.ephrataschools.org/district/school-board. 

School Board Directors Sworn In

Newly elected Ephrata School Board Director, Mike Fleurkens, took the oath of office on Monday night to officially join the board. Fleurkens was elected in November. He replaces long-time School Board Director, Bill Correll, who retired in November after serving the Ephrata community for the past 37 years. 

Josh Sainsbury was also elected to the school board in November. This will be Sainsbury’s first full-term. He was appointed to the board in 2022 to complete the remaining term of former board member Alain Black, who stepped down to coach girls basketball at Ephrata High School. 

As is customary in December, the school board also reorganized responsibilities for the coming year.

• Board Chair: Anita Waller
• Board Vice-Chair: Alan Key
• Co-Legislative Chair: Anita Waller and Mike Fleurkens

Board Directors Approve Defeasement of Remaining Bond Dollars

In a 4-0 vote (Director Adams was absent from the meeting), directors approved Resolution 2023-2024-3, declaring that due to “certain state and local circumstances,” alterations should be made to the District’s 2018 School Bond Resolution 2018-19-3. This is the formal action required to defease the roughly $6.2 million of state match monies remaining from the 2019 bond. 

In September, The Ephrata School Board and administration announced a decision to place the remodel of Grant Elementary on-hold due to skyrocketing costs of construction and to defease the remaining bond dollars. Read the September news release here. 

A bond defeasance is a process of setting aside government securities to pay principal and interest on defeased bonds:

• Cash is used to purchase government securities
• Removes the debt from the balance sheet
• No longer necessary to tax Ephrata taxpayers for the portion of the defeased bonds
• Does not impact bond holders/investors
• No new debt issued

With the approval of this resolution, staff can now begin the defeasance process. It is estimated that taxpayers will save roughly $8.1 million in taxes over the next 15 years. This translates to between $.16 to $.48 per $1,000 of assessed value, depending on the year. 

Robotic Field Paint Spraying System Approved

The board authorized the purchase of a “Tiny Robot” field paint spraying system for use at Ephrata High School and Ephrata

Middle School. The robot will use GPS coordinates to paint markings for the District’s 16 athletic fields. This new system will maximize efficiency of the athletic maintenance and grounds work. It can paint a new soccer field in about 20 minutes, a task that has traditionally taken two days. Staff will now be able to work on additional projects, like mowing and edging neighboring fields and completing other work orders, while supervising the robot’s work. At the school district's practice fields, lines will no longer need to be burned into the grass, increasing player safety as the field will remain flat and not indented from the burned areas. The machine costs $30,000.

Monthly Financial Report

Each month, Allison Razey, the District’s Director of Business and Finance, provides a report on the financial health of the district. Items of note:

• Enrollment in Ephrata Schools continues to increase year-on-year. In November, Ephrata Schools recorded 2,617.77 full-time equivalent (FTE*) students. This number is 72.77** FTE higher than budgeted at the beginning of the year. The District receives $9,625.13 in a basic education allotment from the state for each student enrolled. Additional students add to the financial health of the district.

*FTE is a calculation that translates student credit hours into an equivalent number of full-time, full-year students. 

**The Ephrata School District traditionally underestimates FTE growth and overestimates expenditures during the budgeting process. This conservative financial practice is intended to protect the financial health of the district. 

• On November 30, Ephrata Schools received two of the four yellow school buses purchased with dollars approved by voters in the 2022 school transportation levy. These buses will allow for expansion of bus routes to accommodate on-going growth in Ephrata and allow the district to rotate its fleet to ensure the safety of bus riders. The Ephrata School District anticipates receiving enough of the remaining transportation levy dollars at the end of 2024 to purchase the two remaining buses approved by the levy.

• Work continues on capital projects throughout the district. Recently, funds were allocated to:
  • Install underground sprinklers in the playfields at Columbia Ridge Elementary ($60,000)
  • Trim trees at the FFA Farm grounds. ($80,000)
  • Replacement of 93 windows and an exterior door at Parkway Elementary ($104,000)

Donations

Thank you to the Estate of Bob Treiber for a generous donation of goat/sheep panels to the Ephrata FFA.