S/T School Board Approves 2008-09 Budget Revisions

By Naomi Hatch
   Since the Snowflake School District Governing Board adopted the 2008-09 fiscal year budget there have been some big changes.
   During a public hearing held May 14, District Business Manager Mark Ollerton explained that in December 2008, state officials began talking about a financial crisis, indicating that some time in January they would release data to the schools indicating how much money they will lose.
   Ollerton noted that the state had a $1.6 billion deficit at that time. Ollerton assigned $335,094 in carryover funds to the budget, with $276,827 going to maintenance and operations, and $58,267 to soft capital. He said, “That’s one of the reasons we’re asking for a budget revision.”
   Ollerton said that the reduction was covered primarily by the reserves the district held in the budget and acknowledged that the district has been able to fulfill its contractual obligations until the end of the fiscal year.
   In January district officials put a moratorium on all soft capital spending and on March 1 they put a moratorium on all instructional supply spending. They also put freezes on travel.
   “We made all kinds of aggressive efforts, and froze all hiring until the end of the year to minimize the effects on the reserve that this would have and the effects on the budget that this would have,” said the business manager.
   Ollerton explained to the governing board that reconciliation takes place over the course of a year and if there are any adjustments, for example, in growth the district had a slight increase in what was budgeted and the budget balance carry forward increased from $484,000 to $496,000. He said there is a slight increase in unrestricted capital of $5,585 and soft capital decreased to $58,255, which was by state mandate.
   “This year we put $280,000 for electrical utilities, but our bills were more than that and yet on our natural gas bill we’re spending less this year than what we budgeted, so we are able to balance them out,” said Ollerton, noting that overall, the utility budget decreased because they were able to move things to the appropriate places.
   Later in the meeting, the board unanimously approved the 2008-09 expenditures budget.
   In other action May 14, the board:
   * Approved the renewal of the district’s insurance coverage for the 2009-2010 fiscal year as presented by Eddie Hancock. This year’s cost will be $183,806, which is $700 above last year’s total.
   * Approved open enrollment for 13 students at Highland Primary School, three at Taylor Elementary School, seven at Snowflake Intermediate, eight at Taylor Intermediate School and seven at Snowflake Junior High School.
   * Adopted the 2009-10 salary schedule even though a freeze is in effect.
   * Approved the teacher work day schedule.
   * Awarded the food service contract to Southwest Food Service Excellence for the second consecutive year.
   * Approved the waste disposal contract with TBS Waste with no increase from last fiscal year.
   * Held the first reading of an amendment to allow medical and leave benefits to accrue only upon the completion of 90 days of employment. A motion to approve it passed unanimously.
   * Held the first reading of the reduction in force policy, which will be deleted.
   * Approved student handbooks for each school. Board member Jonni Lewis noted that some dates in Taylor Intermediate School’s handbook should be updated.