Photo by Jon Anderson
Vestavia Hills schools Superintendent Todd Freeman summarizes the school system's budget and strategic plan during a Lunch and Learn event with the Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce at the Vestavia Hills Civic Center on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023.
When Vestavia Hills schools Superintendent Todd Freeman hears people say the school system needs to tighten up its spending instead of ask for a tax increase, his question is, “What do you want me to take away?”
Freeman on Tuesday gave a “Lunch and Learn” talk organized by the Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce in an effort to better explain the school system’s budget, finances and strategic plan. About a dozen people attended the talk at the Vestavia Hills Civic Center.
Freeman said he respects the outcome of the May 9 vote in which Vestavia Hills residents voted against a 9.8-mill property tax increase for the school system, and school officials are trying to think creatively to address the needs with the current level of financial support from the community.
All the needs that were brought up prior to the vote are still there, so school officials have tried to prioritize those needs, he said.
The top priority is to boost the school system’s financial reserves, he said. The state requires school systems to have at least one month’s worth of operating expenses in reserves, but Vestavia Hills school officials want a much more solid reserve than that, he said.
The school system ended fiscal 2023 on Sept. 30 with enough reserves to cover 1.6 months’ worth of expenses. That’s good, but school officials want to strengthen that even more, he said. Money from the upcoming sale of Vestavia Hills Elementary Central should help do that, he said.
The second priority of the school system is to recruit and retain the best teachers, Freeman said. The school district’s leaders over the course of the next year will be looking closely at compensation to make sure Vestavia Hills remains competitive in the marketplace and can keep and recruit the best employees, he said.
The third priority is to make sure school facilities are being utilized in the most efficient and economical manner, Freeman said. Despite a decrease in student enrollment, there is a need for more multi-use spaces, he said.
Also, because Vestavia Hills schools are older, they need some utility upgrades, Freeman said. School leaders believe they can save money on utility expenses by doing such upgrades.
The proposed 2024 budget includes almost $11 million worth of capital projects, including $6.75 million for energy management facility improvements, such as internal and external LED lighting at all school facilities, new controls on mechanical systems and additional insulated space, Freeman has said previously.
The school district doesn’t actually have the money for those energy management facility improvements right now but is applying for a grant from the lieutenant governor’s office that could provide up to $5 million, he said. If the system is able make these improvements, it anticipates several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of cost savings, he said.
A fourth priority is to add to the district’s academic offerings, particularly in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math, Freeman said.
About 70% of graduates from Vestavia Hills High School go into the STEM fields or business and finance, so teachers are looking for creative ways to make learning about those areas come to life, Freeman has said previously.
The STEM offerings at the middle and high school level are good, but they are not as robust at the K-5 level as school district officials would like, Freeman said.
Without additional funding, meeting that goal will have to wait, he said. However, school officials aren’t just sitting still; they’re thinking creatively about ways to boost STEM curriculum by leveraging partnerships with other entities in the community, he said.
STRATEGIC GOALS
The three main goals of the school system’s strategic plan are to provide a profound learning experience for students, provide support for students who face extra challenges and limitations and make sure systems and people are in place to accomplish those tasks, Freeman told the group Tuesday.
One of the key considerations in budgeting for education today is to consider the makeup of each classroom, Freeman said.
An average elementary classroom in Vestavia Hills has 18 students, but five of those have some sort of individualized education plan due to a learning disability, language barrier or gifted status, Freeman said. Three need academic or behavorial intervention, two have a chronic health care need and one has attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, he said.
At the secondary level, the typical core subject classroom has 25 students, and 12 of them have an individualized education plan, six have a health concern, five have ADD or ADHD and two need academic or behavorial intervention, he said.
It’s important to have the highest-quality teachers who can address that wide spectrum of needs and also to keep class sizes down to make it manageable for teachers, Freeman said.
However, it’s also important to provide students (and teachers) with additional help, Freeman said.
A little more than half of the Vestavia Hills school district’s employees are general education teachers, but another 7% are exceptional education teachers, and 8% are teacher aides, he said.
There also are counselors, nurses and people who specialize in working with students learning English as a second language, he said. The district also hires outside companies to assist with counseling, psychology and psychometry, he said.
“It takes a whole large community of people to meet the needs of the classroom,” Freeman said.
BUDGET SUMMARY
The superintendent also took time to review how the school system spends its money.
Of the $109 million 2024 budget, about 74% of overall proposed expenditures in fiscal 2024 are planned to go toward instruction and instructional support, while 10% go to operations and maintenance, 5% to debt service, 4% to transportation, 3% to general administration, 2% to capital projects and 2% to other expenditures.
About 82% of the $94.5 million general fund expenditures will be spent on personnel, while 9% should go toward professional services and utilities, 4% to materials and supplies, 4% to debt service and 1% to other expenditures.
School officials plan to pay $76 million from the general fund to cover salaries and benefits.
“The difference maker in the classroom is not equipment. It’s not technology. It’s not a textbook,” Freeman said. “It’s the teacher.”
In all, the school system employs 923 people, including 525 teachers, 310 non-certified support staff, 32 certified support staff, 22 administrators, 21 counselors, 12 librarians and one career tech director.
Of the 525 teachers, 404 are funded by the state, while 109 are funded with about $8 million in local tax dollars, Chief Financial Officer Courtney Brown said when the budget was presented in September.
While Vestavia Hills has good student/teacher ratios, it misses the mark with counselors, Freeman said. The National Association of School Counselors recommends one counselor per 250 students, and Vestavia Hills could use five to six more counselors to reach that level, he said.
Freeman said some people like to criticize how much money is spent on supplements for athletic and academic coaches and the arts programs. But it amounts to only about 2% of the overall budget, he said. About two-thirds of students in middle and high schools participate in the arts programs, and about half participate in athletics, he said.
“I think that’s a really small investment given the number of kids that are involved in all of those activities that just add to the experiences we given them to learn,” Freeman said.
Laura Vinson, a parent of two students in Vestavia Hills schools who attended Tuesday, said it was helpful for her to see all the challenges that teachers face in their classrooms.
She works in finance in a corporate environment and is not in a classroom every day to understand the complexities that come with teaching today, she said.
“It takes a lot of money to run a great school system like we have in Vestavia,” she said.
Bridgett Glasgow, a Realtor who has two children already out of school and a third one at Pizitz Middle School, said she thought Freeman gave a good overview and summary but said it may take even more details to convince some people that a tax increase is needed.
She voted in favor of the property tax increase in May, she said, but more people might have voted for it if they had been more aware of some of these details about what the district needs, she said.
People need to know about the need for more STEM programs and more counselors, she said.
