By Bill Lawson/Staff Writer
Thursday, January 12, 2012 4:11 PM CST
Jerry Guess
Last June when the Arkansas Department of Education took over the Pulaski County Special School District, there was an outcry from some that the district wasn’t in bad enough fiscal condition to warrant a takeover.
The district ended the fiscal year on June 30 $4 million in debt.
However, Jerry Guess, the long-time Camden-Fairview school superintendent chosen in June to clean up the PCSSD, said last week that the district is in line to finish this year $5 million in the black. That’s a $9 million turnaround.
Although that is far superior to being in the hole, it still is shy of where a district of this size ought to be with reserves, Guess said in an interview, so he is working on even more cuts and savings to provide the district more of a cushion.
The district will benefit from a one-time adjustment in how property taxes are paid, adding an extra $15 million to its coffers, Guess said.
Rather than cut positions, he said, the district is not filling vacancies and trying to do more with less. He said several members of the central office staff, along with professionals throughout the district, have left to retire or take other jobs, and most of those positions have not been filled.
Bill Goff, the district’s new chief financial officer, held a similar position with the Education Department, and Guess said he appreciates that Goff was willing to come aboard.
Goff said he’s getting hands-on experience that he didn’t get working for the state. This job offers an unusual challenge, he said, but he enjoys a challenge and welcomes the opportunity to try to correct the problems that he and Guess inherited.
Guess said the district is planning on making changes in its health insurance program, which should result in significant savings.
Another new addition to his staff, Monica Bryant, the former comptroller for Pinnacle Point Health Care System, is responsible for the proposed savings, which also will provide district employees added benefits, Guess said. The changes should save around $1 million a year, he added. He noted that Bryant had “brought a lot of knowledge and expertise here that’s helping us.”
By working with an insurance broker, the district will have a new fringe benefit program that adds previously unavailable benefits like dental, vision, life, and short and long-term disability insurance. The new benefits package not only will save the district a “significant amount of money,” Guess said, but it will provide employees a much better program.
With about 2,500 employees participating in the current insurance program, Guess said, the $1 million figure is based upon having similar participation percentages to what they have now. With so many employees involved, he said, there was a lot to consider. That’s why the district put the program out to bid.
JTS Financial Services is the new provider. Guess said the company will provide “remarkably better service with immediate savings.” The switch becomes effective with the March payroll.
The district staff has been preparing reports and data just like they would for a locally elected school board, which the PCSSD no longer has as a result of the state takeover. Tom Kimbrell, the state education director, acts in place of a board, Guess said.
When asked if there were any immediate plans to re-establish an elected board, Guess said the district is working to redraw the zone boundaries as required by state law after each decennial census. He said the district has been working with Metroplan, which does similar work with both counties and cities to ensure that the zones are similar in population size.
However, he said he expects state control to last for two years, the length of time allowed under state law.
Asked whether he had discovered any financial irregularities since his appointment, Guess said he hadn’t. He said the financial controls were in place before the takeover but they weren’t being enforced.
Many of those financial controls were passed by the former board at the insistence of the state Education Department based upon the findings of the Arkansas General Assembly’s Division of Legislative Audit after the district was placed on the fiscal distress list but before the state takeover of management.
When the former CFO, Anita Farver, and her assistant, Tasha Thompson, resigned, Guess said, he didn’t immediately replace them. (Thompson is now the director of finance for the city of Maumelle.)
“Every day we work to make the financial operation of the district more successful,” Guess said.
One of the most glaring examples of overspending he said he found was in the cost of copiers. The old copiers were “way out of date” and didn’t work too much of the time, he said. That contract has been replaced with one from a more efficient provider, saving several thousand dollars a month, he added.
Guess said that with Goff’s experience in the business management of schools, the operation of the district has improved significantly. He also praised the district staff for working hard to help him turn things around. It will take some time to accomplish all that he wants to do, such as building up a reserve of $15 million to $20 million, Guess said, but he’s optimistic that the district can do that.
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