School board reviews recognitions, FY18 audit

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The Mountain Brook Board of Education met for a brief meeting on March 11, during which they started with recognition of several Mountain Brook High School students. President of the Board of Education Elizabeth Dunn said the recognitions portion is “always our favorite part" of the meetings.

MBHS principal Philip Holley introduced the selection of students, starting with those who earned awards from the National Council of Women and Information Technology Aspirations in Computing Awards.

The council created awards to “foster great potential that otherwise would have gone unnoticed,” Holley said, and represents more than 1,100 organizations, including universities, government organizations and nonprofits. This is the fourth year MBHS has had a computer science program, teacher Fred Major said.

Virginia Cobbs was the North Alabama Winner, Addison Downy, Bebe Holloway and Hannah Straughn earned North Alabama Honorable Mention and Jessica Brouilette was named Rising Star.

Holley brought wrestling coach Justin Ransom to the podium next. Ransom said there are around 80 kids in grades 7 through 12 in the wrestling program, and it is continuing to grow.

This year was the first time since 1984 MBHS had three state place winners, and the three student athletes who placed — senior John Townsend, fourth place at 145 pounds at state; senior Hayden McDonald, second place at 195 pounds at state; and junior Jack Higgins, third place at 182 pounds at state — helped lead the Spartans to their highest state tournament finish since 1969.

Finally, the board recognized the boys basketball team and their state championship win. The 2019 championship marked the third state championship in three years. Head coach Bucky McMillan said the team is ranked in the top five in the country.

Many of the Spartan’s top players are being recruited by colleges including Yale, Southeastern Louisiana and Springhill. McMillan said Trendon Watford is currently being recruited by Duke, and Alex Washington will be going to Harvard next year to play football, although “they are trying to get him to play basketball, too.”

The board then entered the business portion of the meeting, during which Mountain Brook Schools Chief Financial Officer Kari Austin gave the most recent financial statement. As of the end of February, the school system was 42 percent of the way through the fiscal year, had collected 73 percent of the budgeted general fund revenues and was about 43 percent through the budgeted expenditures.

Steven Moore was also introduced, and he then represented the audit report for the fiscal year 2018.

Moore gave Mountain Brook Schools an unmodified opinion, which is the highest level of assurance given for an audit. Total assets come in at $117 million, liabilities are $100 million and deferred inflows are $40 million, “which leaves you in a negative position of $15 million,” he said.

“Part of that is that net [other post-employment benefits] and net pension liability,” he said. “That amounts to $84 million that is really state-funded liabilities that should be paid out hopefully over the course over the next 5 to 15 years … If it wasn’t for that, you would have an ending net position of $11 million in the positive, so don’t let that negative throw you in any way shape or form.”

The board then approved the first budget amendment of the year, which Austin said simply updates the starting amount for the FY19 budge to reflect the actual end balance that was finalized from FY18.

Also during the meeting, board members:

  • Reviewed the most recent All In Elementary Parenting Conferences, and announced the next will be for parents of secondary students on March 19.
  • Approved the sale or disposal of surplus items.
  • Approved two HVAC bids, one for the MBHS Fine Arts Center and one for Cherokee Bend Elementary, to Comfort Systems.

Spring break will take place March 25-29. The next meeting will be April 8, followed by the annual Student Showcase on April 22.