School Board freeing-up funding for future project
The Hancock County Board of Education meeting was held on Thursday, June 20th. They have been going through the process to free-up funding that can be applied to a future project.
“We have old construction projects that were never closed out,” Superintendent Robby Asberry said, “and so there is money sitting in there. Trey Anderson, when he took over as CFO (Chief Financial Officer/Treasurer), has been working to close all of those old ones out to where the money could be spent on a future construction project.”
The Board approved closeouts in May and again at this month’s meeting. The process to free-up these funds is as such: the Board approves one to be closed out, it is sent to the KY Dept. of Education, and then the KDE brings it back and the Board sends the next.
“We actually have another step,” Asberry said. “We will be closing out some projects in July. Some of the projects were in the negative and some of them were in the positive. Overall, it was a net positive. One of the old projects closed out was the building of NHES from ‘04/’05. These are all of the different construction projects throughout the school system that were never closed out for some reason.
The big thing that we’re still thinking about is the construction of the new middle school. That is something we’re still working towards. With construction costs that keep going up, we’re not there yet. We want all of that to go toward that future funding.”
KSBA
Every year, the Kentucky School Board Association requires that the schools’ policies are upgraded accordingly with all new laws. KSBA does this for every school district in the state.
Asberry explained, “KSBA takes the new KY revised statutes enacted during the last legislative session and makes sure that all of our policies coincide with the new laws. The only changes we had were any revisions that had to be changed because of any new laws that were passed.”
KSBA requires that the National Motto “In God We Trust” be displayed in a prominent location in each elementary and secondary school in the Commonwealth, for example, per KRS 158.195.
The most notable change approved by the Board, per these new laws, is to display on the district’s internet landing page the percentage of students scoring Proficient and Distinguished in reading and math, as well as at the top of each page of the district’s website in a banner format, along with a web link to the detailed results of the district’s performance on the most recent Summative Assessment.
HCHS Fees
The Board approved a list of fees for the ‘24/’25 School Year at Hancock County High School. Those are as follows: Math Department-$10, Agriculture Dept.-$25 (an increase of $5), Choir-$10 (new fee), and Art-$10 (new fee). “There really were no significant changes,” Asberry said. “These school fees, usually, are those consumable things for the student (products or items the student will use up completely).”
Pledge of Collateral
As required by the KDE every year, the Board completes a Pledge of Collateral with their bank, First Financial Bank. This measure certifies that their bank has enough cash collateral above the FDIC insurance, and that the money that HC Schools puts into the bank is protected.
Treasurer’s Bond
The Board approved a $500K bond for HC Schools Treasurer Trey Anderson. This bond of insurance is required by the KDE of every school district annually, and is a protective measure for any financial fraud or errors.
Auditor’s Contract
The HC BOE is audited annually, as all districts are, and the Board approved Patrick & Associates for this year’s audit which will begin in August and is due on November 15th, 2024.
Hancock County native, Kris Kemp, partner at Myriad CPA Group, has presented the audit for the last several years. The firm is under time constraints and can only do so many school districts this year, which is why they could not do HC Schools audit. “A lot of auditors can only take so many school districts,” Asberry said, “so we’ll be going with a new auditor this year.”
CPA Tammy Patrick, partner at Patrick & Associates, he said, will likely be the one presenting the audit at an upcoming HC BOE meeting this year.
Preschool Program
An increase in days for the Preschool Instructional Assistant Program and Bus Monitor Positions was approved. All preschool students will now receive 5 days of instruction. Asberry said, “We feel this was a better schedule for the parents of preschool students. This change will also increase the Preschool Instructional Assistants to 173 days, and our Preschool Bus Monitor to 180 days.”
CEP Pilot-Complete Forms
As reported in The Clarion, a district-wide Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) Pilot was approved by the Hancock County Board of Education during their April meeting. CEP is a non-pricing meal service option for schools in low-income areas and will be implemented for one year beginning in fall, and then reviewed again for approval for the ‘25/’26 school year.
Asberry said that free and reduced lunch forms must still be completed by the parents/caregivers of all students. “That paperwork is the reason why we’re able to do the free breakfast and lunch for all students,” he said. “People call it ‘free lunch forms’ but it’s so much more than that. There are so many more things that we use that information for.
That’s the reason we’re able to do the CEP, because of how many free and reduced lunch students that we have. It’s VERY important for parents/caregivers to fill that out. It will be with the student enrollment forms. It is online registration.”
Families will be receiving those forms sometime in July, he said. Regardless of income or status, every student in a participating school gets this free meal service through the program, and success is determined by participation.
The program will be at no cost to the district because it’s based on reimbursement from federal dollars, and will provide free breakfast and lunch to all students at HC Schools. Applications for free or reduced-price meals are at www.hancock.kyschools.us, and on the parent portal account under the More & Meal Benefits section.
Treasurer’s Report
Treasurer Trey Anderson reported that the balance on-hand at the start of the month was $5,085,507.15. The total receipts for the month were $2,288,947.14. The expenses for the month were $1,268,930.24, and the balance at close was $6,125,791.99.
Superintendent Closing Statement
Asberry said, “I am thankful to close out another great school year. We’re looking forward to improving the next school year, like we do every year. That’s what we’ll be doing this summer. We want to keep moving forward and keep improving every year.”
By Jennifer Wimmer
