Sept. 27 Board Meeting - FY 05 Budget Hearing

Supt. Hill noted that the various funds maintained in the budget are kept in a general Money Market account. Separate accounts are kept by the District.

FY05 (Fiscal Year 2005) shows a balance of $194,000 in District 3. The last 3 years showed deficits in the hundreds of thousands, which, Supt. Hill noted, was done intentionally by the Board so as not to cut student programs. Supt. Hill also remarked that the FY05 balance may grow to $250,000 if we have a mild winter and energy costs are low.

Board Member Bob Nunamaker noted that the FY05 balance is still 3.5% over expenditures, so the Board will still have to monitor the budget and expenditures very closely.

Supt. Hill remarked that we’re not out of the woods yet, but we are on the way. Board Member Gerry Blohm stated that the budget balance is a tribute to Supt. Hill and his work. Supt. Hill further noted that the balance is a tribute to the community, which came out and supported the schools (with the referendum approval).

Board Member Pat Hughes asked Supt. Hill if he foresaw any large ticket expenditures over the next two years. Hill stated that, while he couldn’t trust his crystal ball, he said the school district buildings are in good shape. We have a 10-year roof replacement plan, and the middle school may have to replace one or more of its roof’s three sections in the next two years, but no replacement is currently scheduled. Algonquin Road School has two roof sections, and neither is scheduled for replacement, either. The boilers at ARS are 5-6 years old.

Hill also noted that there are 271 computers in the District, which will soon be nearly 10 years old. This is a long time for the average computer life span. When new computers are acquired, the newer computers would be placed in the Middle School Computer Lab and the older computers would rotate to the ARS classrooms, where they would be adequate for running the educational software used there. A plan for acquiring 40 new computers a year is in preparation and will be presented to the Board in the Spring.

The $121K tech budget was cut this year to $50K. If the plan is approved an increase in the tech budget to $65K or $75K may be needed.

At this time, Supt. Hill does not foresee any imminent big-ticket expenditures.

The Board approved the FY05 Budget by a vote of 7-0 (all members in attendance).