Decatur close to taking control

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

— The fund-raising bake sales and car washes are behind them.

The interim superintendent has come and gone, replaced by a more permanent hire, and budget balances have been transformed from red to black.

About the only step left is electing a clean slate of school board members before the Decatur district returns to local control on Oct. 1.

About two years ago, the state of Arkansas declared the Decatur School District in such a state of fiscal distress that it took it over.

This meant dissolving its school board and hiring a temporary superintendent, who then reported directly to the state while he turned the districts’ finances around.

“It brought the community together, there’s no doubt about it,” said C. L. Abercrombie, president of the Decatur Education Foundation, recalling how, in July 2008, people joined forces to raise about $275,000 in about three weeks.

“One of the things we didn’t want to do was lose our school,” he said, adding that the alternatives for Benton County’s smallest school district were merging with another district or being divided and parceled out among several neighboring districts.

“There were car washes, there were bake sales, there were letters sent to alumni that resulted in contributions,” he said.

“I’m looking here - they had fish fries, pretzel sales, raffle tickets. Softball tournaments.”

The foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has been around for about six years, helped, Abercrombie said. Overall, its efforts frequently include raising scholarship money and buying band instruments.

He credits Decatur State Bank with funneling most of the money aimed at bailing out the district from donors’ hands to the district coffers. Besides the tellers’ bucket-sit set up for spare change, an account was set up at the bank to collect the gifts.

Better direction

For LeRoy Ortman, helping the Decatur schools dig themselves out of financial peril was unlike any other superintendent’s job he’d had before.

“That was the first time I didn’t have a school board,” he said, adding that this was “sort of a blessing,” since reporting to two bosses would have made it extra difficult.

Ortman, who lives in Bella Vista, came out of retirement in August 2008 to help rescue the Decatur School District, a job he finished June 30.

The re-retired Ortman paused Friday afternoon while mowing his yard to reminisce on the major undertaking.

“My job was to get the district back on solid financial footing,” said Ortman, who served as the Gravette School District’s superintendent from 1995 to 2005.

Decatur had closed its books June 30, 2008, nearly $95,000 in the red, with its deficit projected to grow to more than a half-million dollars a yearlater, prompting former Education Commissioner Ken James to call it one of the worst cases of financial mismanagement in Arkansas schools.

Exactly one year later, the district ended the 2009 fiscal year with more than $700,000 in non-restricted carryover money in its operational budget.

“Those are dollars that the district can spend at its discretion,” Ortman said, describing the non-restricted funds.

On June 30, the district carried over more than $760,000 in the same line item, he said. As for restricted funds dedicated to specific spending purposes, it carried over $250,000.

Decatur slashed budget spending through attrition and eliminating bus routes.

Other tools in its belt-tightening arsenal included renegotiating leases and moving classes into a smaller number of buildings to save on energy - the latter accomplished by converting the elementary school from kindergarten through fifth grade to kindergarten through sixth, and moving seventh and eighth grades to the high school, then closing middle school facilities.

Ortman said it was purely a financial move that had virtually no effect on academic programs.

The state’s annual school elections are Sept. 21.

For the reconstituted five-member Decatur School Board, a contested race emerged in Zone 5; uncontested candidates filed for Zones 1, 2 and 4, barring write-in challenges; but Zone 3 drew no contenders so an appointment will be needed.

Finding a leader

Bobby King, principal at Decatur High School, said the district has been just shy of 500 students so far in the school year.

King recalled how local committees worked with the state to search for a permanent superintendent before the Arkansas Department of Education hired Larry Ben at the end of June.

Information for this article was contributed by Tracie Dungan and Tracy M. Rogers.

News, Pages 5 on 09/15/2010