District 32 will "bank" $600,000 as 2014-15 budget finalized

Superintendent Scott Ireland delivered big news to the Board of Education at Monday evening's meeting: The District will "bank" over $600,000 in savings this year, after spending over $725,000 for unbudgeted improvements.

"That's a $1.3 million difference," Ireland said. "The largest contributing factor, of course, was the decision for the District to operate its own transportation system instead of contracting for those services."

Scroll down to see Superintendent Ireland's PowerPoint presentation from the June 29 board meeting.

After approval of the final 2014-15 school year budget, the District will transfer more than $600,000 into the general fund balance, bringing it to over $8 million for the first time in school history. District 32 has an annual budget of about $22 million.

The unbudgeted purchases that Ireland made this year for the District include 12 classroom sets of 32 laptops (384 machines) at a cost of $144,000, plus an additional 120 laptops; new Promethean boards for all 57 elementary classrooms; and a $295,000 payment toward the new $585,000 transportation facility under construction on the District 32 campus.

"Additionally, we have increased the base salary for teachers to $31,600. The District 32 salary schedule now puts us as the second-highest among the 5 schools that are in our comparison group, which includes Perryville, Ste. Genevieve, Jackson, Cape and Sikeston, as ranked by an outside source," the superintendent told the board.

Ireland said the transportation savings were $703,734. "I had projected at least $620,000, so we've exceeded my expectations," he said. "Those savings will continue over the remaining 4 years of the lease, as compared to the bid to contract our transportation services. The potential savings during the remainder of our lease is expected to be over $2.68 million dollars."

Ireland said that the District can't be hit with a large increase in transportation if the lease with the current bus leasing service, Midwest Bus Sales, is renewed. "At the end of our contract in 4 more years, the next bid cannot increase by more than 3 percent per year," he explained. "That increase would be $54,700."

Ireland said that's he's on track to save over $6 million over a 10-year period. He cautioned the board not to think of the $8 million in general fund reserves as a great deal of money, however. "It does sound like a lot of money in reserves," he explained. "However, we have been in situations where state and federal funding have been delayed or withheld in the past. If that were to happen again, that $8 million would pay our bills for just 4 months."

After finalizing this year's budget, the board then heard Ireland's recommendation for the 2015-16 school year, which begins July 1. "I recommend a flat budget again this year, like we did last year," he said. "In October, we will have actual numbers for salaries and other expenses and can make amendments, just like we did last October." The board approved the budget as presented.

Ireland also recommended that the board approve the transfer of at least $300,000 of the $600,000 surplus to Fund 4, or the "Rainy Day Fund," which provides reserve cash to make repairs to buildings or fund construction projects. The board approved a $300,000 transfer to Fund 4.

Board President Nancy Voelker thanked Ireland for his fiscal oversight. "The board appreciates all of your hard work on the budget this last year," she said.