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With questions regarding school finances remaining across New York state, the Jamestown Public Schools board of education took steps during a special meeting Tuesday night to help get in front of them.
The board unanimously passed a motion allowing the district's superintendent, Dr. Kevin Whitaker, to execute an agreement with R.G. Timbs, Inc. -- a consulting firm run by former Erie 2 Chautauqua Cattaraugus BOCES superintendent, Dr. Rick Timbs -- to help the district take a look at its finances.
"Rick Timbs and his organization would take a look at the soup to nuts work all the way through each line and make a determination as to the financial health of the district, the budget practices, the reserve funds and the status of those with the purpose being two-fold," Whitaker said. "One to address, collect, get feedback on and maximize our current budget and our practices around the budget and also to help us look forward three years, five years, seven years and make sure that we're going to be able to withstand some fiscal stress during that time and help us create a future budget plan."
School board member Nina Karbacka praised the hire of Timbs' agency.
"I have heard Dr. Timbs speak a couple times at the local school boards events and he is amazing," she said. "His depth of knowledge in these areas was outstanding. I think that, if we can bring him on board, that he would have good things to say."
Whitaker also explained that Timbs' initial service would provide results in a timely fashion and present his findings to the board in some form.
"In our discussions, he talked about a relatively short amount of time to come in and do some research and determinations," he said. "I would think it's measured in weeks rather than months. The other stuff in the full service contract would be months of years of service."
The board also unanimously approved the reinstatement of the P-TECH program for next school year, but had further discussion on its future and the possibility of providing opportunities to interested kids locally.
"Everyone has been extremely supportive of our desire to continue to have kids do this type of learning," Whitaker explained. "The question is location really and that's what we're struggling with. We have the benefit of aid at BOCES, but we have the struggles of transportation and cost that are related to that and size, the number of students that can enroll. If we can come up with something that's local and can serve a lot more kids given that we have block scheduling and there's time for us to travel back and forth, this could be a lot bigger and have a lot bigger impact."
"If nothing else, I support this because it offers us a year to reformulate a plan for this and if it needs to go in a different direction, it can be in a constructive way," school board president Paul Abbott said. "It may change the program, but the end result still comes out the same. The road to get there just maybe changes."
Consideration should be given, as well, to underclassmen in the program, that provides students a pathway technology program for those looking to pursue a career in manufacturing or technology.
"Anyone from year one through five is potentially going to have a different experience next year and subsequent years and that's what we have to take a year to look at and make a determination as to what it is that we can provide them, whether it's locally," Whitaker said. "Sometimes you can do a lump-sum, whole hog entire change in one year and it's successful and other times you have to make partial moves across a series of years and that's what we have to pursue."
Whitaker also shared brief updates with the board on the reopening committee, made up of 40 district stakeholders -- parents, students, teachers, administrators.
"That group would pick up work hopefully next week via Zoom and then via subcommittee work to make a plan that we could then publicize, send out to parents after we submit to the state at the end of July," he said, noting that there are "two hard weeks of work ahead" and that the message must be clear.
"We're not going to put out a 75-page, complicated document. It has to be understandable, short and to the point," Whitaker added. "It's important that we have our constituents represented on this committee and we have quite a few folks represented here. We need to make sure we have everybody who is going to be impacted by this there and able to make a decision."