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NILES — Brandywine Board of Education members handled a number of items at their meeting Monday night including appointing a student representative to the board and approving contracts for card access to buildings, surveillance cameras and resurfacing the high school track.

Board members also learned that district administrators are debating what kind of summer school program, if any, will be offered this summer. Superintendent Travis Walker said he expects the decision to be made by the end of April if not sooner.

Walker told board members that he and other administrators began talking about what summer school will look like this year after hearing about the possibility of U.S. Department of Education funding cuts and not knowing exactly what funding will be available.

He noted that summer school is funded primarily through Title I federal funds. “We’ve heard different things that there could be some cuts, but there’s nothing definitive,” he said. “We’ve looked at whether summer school is the best way to spend the funds we have if there are cuts.”

He added that another issue to throw into the mix is the fact that work on securing building entrances is scheduled to start at district buildings as soon as school lets out in June. He said that they will have to find another location for the summer school program or build a “firewall” to separate students from the construction.

“We started thinking that last year only about 25 percent of eligible students who took advantage of the program,” he said. “Then we saw that less than 50 percent of those who attended last summer saw growth from their spring to their fall NWA tests.”

Another point he mentioned is that while 300 students were eligible last year, only about 150 students are eligible this year due to interventions done during the school year to improve students’ grades. He said the thought is that spending money on classroom interventions might be more impactful for the students.

Walker said the current thought is to have summer school for the elementary grades but to have a middle/high school summer school program including credit recovery at the Brandywine Innovation Academy. Another alternative would be to have all the summer school programs including the free meals at the middle/high school.

Board President Jessica Crouch suggested that if cuts do occur that the district could save the Title I funds it currently has set aside for summer school to spend in the classroom next year or save for next year’s summer school offerings.

“We’ve heard maybe a 25 percent cut in funding,” Walker said. “If we make changes this year, we may not have to cut as much in the first year of the DOE cuts to maintain the services we’re providing.”

In action, board members discussed the selection of a student representative to the board from the three students who applied. They ended up choosing junior Aleyna Vollman to serve in that post. The goal of having a non-voting student representative on the board is to bring their perspectives as well as providing information directly to students.

Walker said Vollman has been involved in a number of activities both in athletics and the fine arts. Board members liked that she said she wanted to advocate for programs for younger students and not just those at the high school.

Board members approved bids for the middle/high school track resurfacing as well as for access cards and surveillance cameras. A.G. Sports Services was the winning bidder for the track resurfacing, while Vermillion Systems was the winning bidder for the other two projects.

The costs will be around $134,650 for the track resurfacing and around $75,000 each for the other two projects.

Board members also heard from Assistant Superintendent Ray Wilburn about the second budget amendment for the 2024-25 fiscal year.

Wilburn said general fund revenue is expected to be between $17.4 million and $17.5 million, with expenditures around $17.6 million. That budget deficit is smaller than the first budget amendment last fall where expenditures exceeded revenue by $525,000.

He said the primary difference between the two budget amendments was that the gym floor work had been included in the general fund but is now in the sinking fund.

He said if nothing changes by the end of the fiscal year in June, the district would have a fund balance of $3.8 million and a fund equity of $21.7 million. He said the district has enough funds on hand to cover three months of expenditures if no revenue was coming in.

The fund balance as a percentage of expenditures is at around 20 percent which Wilburn and Walker said is a healthy level.