Rumfelt to host budget town hall Saturday

Nancy Rumfelt, board member on the Thompson School District Board of Education, will host a town hall Saturday specifically addressing budgetary and school finance questions for her constituents.

The town hall, the third that Rumfelt has held since being reelected in November, found its topic after the board member asked previous attendees, as well as respondents to a survey she circulated, what they would be interested in learning more about.

The budget was number one on the list, she said.

The topic suits Rumfelt, a longtime certified public accountant who has been observing the district’s finances since long before she joined the board, she said.

“I mean, I’ve been following the district since around 2010 or 2011,” she said. “So I have years of all of the financial history, it’s not like I have to start from scratch.”

The subject can be confusing for many residents, Rumfelt said, and various arcane elements of school finance, like the difference between a mill levy override and a bond issue or how the district’s general fund fits into its larger financial situation, can easily and understandably confuse.

“I’m just hoping to help them understand exactly where all the money comes from for a school,” Rumfelt said. “You go to a board meeting and you’ll hear them talk a lot about the general fund. Which, you know, there’s a significant amount that comes from the state, the School Finance Act, but we also receive a lot of money from federal and state grants. And we don’t usually focus on all that other money that we receive. So I want to help people understand the total money that we receive.”

Rumfelt’s professional career is in accounting, and she said that she’s developed the skills to communicate such concepts clearly to a lay audience.

“You know, people say ‘Hey, we keep voting on (mill levy overrides), so why doesn’t our school have more teachers?’” Rumfelt said. “So I want to help people understand how that money gets divvied up.”

The forum will be held 1-3 p.m. Saturday in hybrid format, with an in-person event held at The Yards, 5605 Mcwhinney Blvd., and also on Zoom. The Zoom link is at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86200026541; the passcode is 222841.

The event is free.