Businesses adopting St. Vrain schools in SOS program

LONGMONT — At the end of 2002 the St. Vrain Valley School District discovered a $13 million debt that threatened the 38 schools within its boundaries.

The news was a shock to the community — as well as to the district. While school administrators focused on keeping the electricity turned on, the Longmont community pulled together to support its students.

Longmont United Hospital took the lead by setting up a fund-raising program that would funnel the community’s financial and material support directly into the schools.

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To date, the Support Our Students program has monitored and managed $180,938 in donations. Nine schools have been “adopted” by area businesses, and some of the significant gaps from budget cuts and lost funding are being met — one pencil at a time, in some cases.

“The program has done wonders in getting the egg off the face of the community,´ said Dave Palmisano, director of development and relations at Longmont United Hospital. “It shows that this community will step up to the challenge — we know the students are our future CEOs.”

The SOS program is designed to be a community collaboration and is advised and managed by a volunteer oversight committee. On one end of the pipeline are businesses and individuals who donate dollars or in-kind services that equate to cash. On the receiving end are schools that submit their needs lists and upon approval from the committee are allotted money from the general fund.

Criteria for requests are that they must be learning aids — like paper, supplies and books — and exclude capital needs like desks as well as salary compensation.

When a business adopts a school it means that it focuses its support on directly meeting the needs of that school.

“Our goal is to get all 38 schools adopted,” explained Palmisano, who is coordinator of the SOS program. “We want these relationships and the program to continue to exist after the schools are stable.”

Although the 38 district schools have remained open, they have each gone through budget cuts.

“Downsizing was one of the ways the district reduced the budget,´ said Nancy Herbert, public information officer for the St. Vrain Valley School District. “That equated to 21 positions — service positions — people who work in the educational services center that provides districtwide services.” These positions were within the district’s central administration.

Salaries of all district employees were cut by 7.125 percent. “Each school also had to cut its general fund budget by 15 percent,” Herbert added. “Administrators were affected more severely because the dependents insurance was cut by the district making a 7 to 20 percent impact on them.”

The district employs about 2,600. Full-time teachers account for about 1,600 of that number.

“Cuts in our operating budget have affected all our supplies like paper and toner for the copier,´ said Julie McVicker, principal of Indian Peaks Elementary. “It also cut out our teachers from going to conferences because the money to pay substitutes used to come from that budget.”

Longmont United Hospital adopted Indian Peaks and is helping to keep the school supplies stocked.

“They bought all our reading support material,” McVicker added.

Mark Pillmore came on as the district’s chief financial officer in May. He’s lived in Longmont for

29 years and has run an accounting practice there for the last 15.

“We closed the fiscal year in June 2003 with the remaining debt to the state of Colorado at under $4.8 million,” he said. The state Legislature passed a bill that allowed the district to sell a school property to the state and enter into a lease for purchase agreement. The building is a collateral asset that covers the loan doled out by the state.

The Clover Basin building, used as a warehouse and to house the district’s technology services, has a property value of $5 million and covers the $4.8 million loan, Pillmore explained.

The first payment was made Aug. 1 and the final payment will be paid by June 1, 2004. The monthly payment equals $423,419, with the final payment set at $142,000, according to Pillmore.

To safeguard against a similar crisis in the future, the district has set up a number of checks and balances.

“We’ve established a community budget advisory committee of about 23 people who meet monthly,” Pillmore said. “The school board formed a finance and audit committee that meets weekly.” A monthly financial report is presented to the board and is reviewed by this committee as well.

In addition, the Colorado state treasurer’s office now follows procedures that analyze the district’s cash flow and deficit reports. According to Pillmore, the state treasurer is taking this active stance with all schools in Colorado.

“The good news is that our CSAP results showed improvement in nearly every school, reflecting that we made it through this crisis with no detrimental results for the students,” Pillmore added.

Learn about SOS

For more information about how to donate to the Support Our Students (SOS) program call (303) 651-5342 or go online at www.longmontfyi.com/sos/aboutsos.htm.