The USD 249 Board of Education received a welcome piece of budget news at its 6 p.m. meeting Wednesday.
The district’s 47.355 mill levy will not increase for Fiscal 2011, and the district was able to transfer about $200,000 into discretionary fund balances for the coming budget year to build up reserves for the future, said financial officer Julie Underwood. Discretionary funds are those in which money can be transferred from one fund to another.
“We’re building next year’s budget on a flat mill levy,” Underwood said. “The year ended very well, and we were able to build balances.”
Underwood said $70,000 will be transferred into the bulk education fund, $67,000 will be transferred into the special education fund, and $65,000 will go into the contingency fund. She cautioned that the money was not there to spend, rather as a buffer incase funding is cut in the future.
“That’s something we have to plan for,” she said.
The district started Fiscal 2010 with a budget of about $8.5 million for operational expenditures — not including debt services — and fund balances of about $994,000. It will finish the year with total fund balances of about $1.3 million, or about 15 percent.
“That’s certainly a prudent balance right now,” Superintendent Dale Slagle said. “We actually finished the year in the black, which is a good thing in these tough economic times.”
Also Wednesday, the Board voted 6-0 to change its non-resident student policy. Previously, district administration officials made the call on whether to allow to allow a student that lives outside district boundaries to transfer into the district. Administration officials will still review requests, but the Board will now make the final call after considering the administration’s recommendations.
Slagle said the policy change was due to having higher enrollment numbers in each grade level than the targeted 72 students.
The Board also approved coaching assignments for spring sports, and hired D.J. McCarley as its new transportation director. McCarley previously worked for SEK Interlocal and Pittsburg schools.
