INTERVIEW WITH PCS DIRECTOR OF FINANCE – Tracey Worley

As we move forward into summer, there have been lingering questions about what funding and finances will look like when the 2020-2021 school year begins. On June 10, PEA had the opportunity to have a sit-down interview with PCS Director of Finance, Tracey Worley. Below is a transcript of the interview:
Tell us about yourself/describe for us your role as Director of Finance for Pittsylvania County Schools (PCS).
I am a product of PCS; A 1985 graduate of GHS. I enjoyed the small elementary school life at Mt. Airy elementary and went to Averett College in Danville, graduating in 1989, earning a B.S. with concentration in Accounting. I received my CPA license in 1992. I worked in the private arena until coming to the county in 1994 to work for the Board of Supervisors as their first Director of Finance and then came to the school system in 2000 as Budget Supervisor. The thing I enjoyed the most through my journey in the finance world is going from the private to the public/government world of accounting. It was quite a learning curve but I have enjoyed this side of accounting very much. I became the first Director of Finance for PCS in 2012 when Mr. Don Johnson retired from the school division.
What is the most challenging part of budgeting for you?
From year to year, it’s the amount of funding that we receive for PCS. It’s just not enough. The majority of our funds come from the state. Our county is doing all they can. They are trying to give us more funding. We are just so far behind in that category and it is going to take quite some time to build up the local funding. We are such a large school system, it takes a lot of money to do anything.
How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your work and our school division’s budget/finance operations… Many are concerned about the completion of the Evergreen Solutions compensation study. Can you describe what potential plans PCS has for completing the study and incorporating a cost of living adjustment?
When things absolutely turned around on a dime in March, it was devastating. After several years, we actually had a budget that looked like Christmas in July. We were going to have funding to give employees the last phase of the compensation study, and their steps for FY 2019 and FY 2020. When the economy shut down, everybody knew it was not going to end well from an economic standpoint or medical standpoint. We were financially able to honor all contracts through June 30 2020 and it is my hope that all of our employees are grateful for that as well. Revenue losses for FY 2020 have not been as bad as we thought they would be. We are still waiting to see what our sales tax revenue will be for the month of June. We are anticipating it will be less than budgeted, but it will give guidance to better project for July and August. The amount we receive for sales tax revenue is two months behind… so what we receive in June is based on what the population spends in April. Our total budget with Cares Act money and new state money received based on SOQ, is still looking similar to the budget that was passed by the BOS in March. However, there is no new projection for lottery or sales tax and we have to anticipate those revenues being lower than originally projected. When April lottery numbers came in, they were 14.4% below where they were the previous year. Hopefully, things will not be as bad economically speaking with the state slowly reopening. That is why we have to be very cautious and conservative when we start the school year. The initial plan for the CARES ACT money is to be used for “Other activities that are necessary to maintain the operations of and continuity of services and continuing to employee existing staff”.
A lot of the money we were expecting to receive, like compensation money, is currently un-allotted, this means if things turn around and we receive this money, then we are looking to see what we can do for a “during the year” salary increase. We need about $1.2 million to complete the compensation study. You cannot use CARES money to give a bonus or raise; if we do not need the CARES money for normal operating expenses, we can use that for other expense like technology for students and staff.
Looking at those who are near or at retirement, in addition to those who have held on at their current pay/step, if PCS gets money from Governor Northam later this year, will that money be incorporated as a bonus or will it be a salary adjustment? Too, if the money is received during this year (2020), will that money be included in pay during 2020 or held off until 2021 and what impact could that have on employee taxes and retirement.
The number one goal is to get the final phase of the compensation study implemented, next will be the step increases for FY 2019 and FY 2020. After that, we will look at doing a cost of living adjustment to the salary scales as funding is available. If a salary change is made during the fiscal year, it will be effective from that date forward. That would then be your credible comp in VRS, effective whatever date PCS would be able to implement the increase. I (Tracey) am always in favor of a salary increase instead of a bonus. Generally when a bonus is given, it is given with one-time money, but if the compensation money from the state is re-allotted, that would be used to implement the compensation study.
If you had a wish list of what we could do with Pittsylvania County Schools finances for the 2020-2021 school year and beyond, what would that list look like and why?
The first thing, I would put a very nice cost of living adjustment on the salary schedules to bring us into 2020. The second thing would be maintenance and getting our buildings back up to par… stop the roof leaks, pave parking lots, etc. The third thing would be too add new programs for instruction and allow PCS to continue to grow.