School board members approved a $38.52 million budget for the 2017-18 school year during a special meeting on Thursday afternoon.
The budget has $38.52 million in expenses and $34.9 million in revenue, and includes a $3.62 million deficit designed to spend down the district's carryover balance, according to Terry Raskiewicz, chief financial officer for the district.
Raskiewicz explained that last year the state legislature approved a bill capping the amount of money a school district can carry over each year to 20 percent of the budget. Last year, the Siloam Springs Schools had a budget carryover of 25 percent. The district has five years to spend the money down to a 20 percent carryover, and plans to spend down a total of $6.9 million over that period, she said.
The school district budgeted for a deficit of $3.46 million during the 2016-2017 school year, but ended up with an actual deficit of only $1.26 million. The school received approximately $1 million in revenue and spent $1 million more in expenses than expected.
"I always budget for the worst and hope for the best and so far it's done us really well," Raskiewicz said.
In other business, School Board members approved allowing school officials to negotiate with Crossland Construction to manage the construction of a new library at Northside Elementary School. At a board meeting last week, the School Board approved entering a contract with BiLD Architects for the project.
The new library would be 3,500 square feet, according to Superintendent Ken Ramey. If the plan moves forward, the current 2,000-square-foot library would be renovated and turned into administrative offices.
General News on 09/24/2017