Board finalizing $19.6 million budget

McCook Public Schools board members didn't disagree Wednesday evening about a $45,000 figure in the 2006-07 school district budget -- they just couldn't agree over where to put it in the budget.

Historically, the fund for board functions has been about $25,000 to $30,000, and is designed to pay costs for board members to attend conferences and for legal fees.

Last year, the board paid for the district's new student information system, Infinite Campus, from that fund.

Anticipating the possibility of increased use of the fund this year, the board increased its fund to $60,000.

Board member Diane Lyons has been advocating for the board to put money into a contingency fund, which is designed specifically to pay for uninsured losses and legal fees and would prefer, she said that the extra $45,000 be used to start that fund.

However, once money is in a contingency fund, finance director Rick Haney said, it cannot be used for anything else and cannot be transferred to another fund.

Board member Jim Coady said that by leaving the $45,000 in the board fund, the board would have the flexibility to use it in case of an unforeseen expense or emergency -- an expense that would have to be approved by the board. If, at the end of the school year, that money has not been used, Coady said, then it could be transferred to the district's depreciation fund.

Coady cautioned against cutting entirely the $45,000 from the board fund. "You never know what money may be needed for legal fees," he said.

Fellow board member Mike Gonzales said that he would not object to a transfer of the remaining money to either the depreciation fund or to the general/instruction fund.

Lyons, however, said that she "hates to see transfers between funds," and views them as poor stewardship of tax payers' money.

"I'd like to use the board fund for what it's intended," Lyons said, not for potential expenses for something else.

Gonzales said, though, that a budget "isn't set in stone," describing a budget as a "general operating plan of action that can change if things happen."

Finance director Rick Haney agreed, saying that expenses are up and down throughout the year and from one year to the next, pointing out wide fluctuations the past year in insurance costs and transportation/fuel. He said the district "adheres to the budget as closely as possible," but agreed with Coady that unspent money in the board budget could be transferred at the end of the year.

Coady said he can support the 2006-07 budget as it is written, adjusting line items within the budget as needed.

Although the meeting Wednesday evening was a workshop, and no official action could be taken, the board did not change the proposed general fund tax levy request of $1.052440 per $100 of property valuation. The bond levy, approved by voters when they agreed to expand and renovate North Ward Elementary into a new single-site elementary a year ago, will be $.139115. The total levy, therefore, for the McCook school district, will be $1.191555.

The total tax request will be $4,933,317. The total budget is $19,641,119 -- $4,817,085 of which will be in aid from the state.

Although Haney said he has heard that the state plans to redesign its state aid formula, Coady said, "We can't anticipate what state aid and the Legislature will do. We'll have to look at it as it comes."