By Martha Jacob – 

Fayetteville-Perry Board of Education met in regular session Oct. 19 at the elementary school.
The meeting began with a brief report from board treasurer Jo Anna Carraher who spoke briefly about finances for the district.
“Our district usually gets more money for our grants, usually it’s several thousand dollars,” Carraher said. “Our Title I grant was cut 44 percent at the beginning of the year. Today, we got our increases and so we need to do an ammendment to the certificate. In Title I we got $1,186 and on Title II we got $5.98.”
Carraher said that she has never received anything like that amount before.  She then spoke briefly to the board about the 5-Year Forecast.
“Our foundation payment from Sept. 2 to October 1 so you can see the comparison,” Carraher said. “Foundation payment, CAUV, taxes and open enrollment have all had a positive impact, but things can change quickly.
“House Bill 45 says that school districts will receive less. We may not see any foundation increases until 2021.”
Carraher discussed open enrollment increases, and negotiations with the teacher’s union and increases in retirement and insurance rates, and the need for more specialists.
The treasurer told the board that the district is back on the Traditional Aid Guarantee and is flat-lined. She also reported that fund collections for two of the school’s existing bonds expire on December 1, 2017 which will lower taxes for residents.
She stated that next year the district will officially be spending more money than it is taking in, an issue which will have to be addressed by the board since it can’t change what the state allows but added that those numbers could change at any time.
The board approved the 5-Year Forecast.
Superintendent Jim Brady said that one of the reasons he wanted to meet in the Elementary School was to showcase the walls which were painted by art teacher Mrs. Danielle Sawyer’s students. Board members applauded Sawyer for her efforts.
In other actions at the meeting, Superintendent Brady discussed open enrollment figures which went from 184 last year to 197 this year. He said the school received a check for $2,420 from the ‘Ford Drive for Your School’ event which will go into the general fund.
Brady said the school has applied for several grants including one which was through the Bureau of Workers Compensation.
“Eighty percent of this grant will be funded by the bureau and 20 percent by the district,” Brady said. “That’s an $11,000 grant for special education and our share would be $1,400.
“The other grant was for the pre-K program through the Education Service Center to help all Brown County schools.
“The attorney general’s office did contact us and we are one of the districts approved to attend a  two day training in Wellston and after the training we should receive some upgrade security funds available to us.”
Brady briefly discussed the Coalition for a Drug Free Brown County and a Fayetteville-Perry freshman, Sydney Mitchells logo will now be used on the coalition’s brochures. She is in Mrs. Sawyers art class at the high school.
Brady updated the board on Senate Bill 196 which will change bullying which will become criminalized. also Senate Bill 216 regarding state assessments would eliminate kindergarten diagnostic accrescents for reading, writing and math.
Board members discussed Rocket Academy through a conference call and will be discussing more in the future.