Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
THE IRONWOOD Area Schools recognizes four students, from left, freshman David Jarvenpaa, seventh grader John Balchik, third grader Markl Robbins and first grader Kira Kirby as citizens of the month for October at Monday's board of education meeting. October's virtue was fairness.
By RICHARD JENKINS
Ironwood - The Ironwood Area Schools continues to improve its financial situation, with the board of education passing a budget amendment Monday.
The amendment is part of the district's efforts to grow its fund balance - efforts which appear to be succeeding.
"The work we've been doing to reduce our spending so far this year, combined with an increased per-pupil amount and stable enrollment ... has resulted in an estimated fund balance at the end of the 2018-19 school year of $203,000," Superintendent Travis Powell said.
Assuming the projected $203,239 fund balance holds through June, the district will finish the school year with a fund balance that is more than double the one at the end of the 2017-18 year.
The board learned in October that, while the district had projected to end the last year with a fund balance of $134,000, its actual fund balance was $96,110.
As with his report in October, Powell cautioned the board Monday that some of the fund balance is money restricted for a specific purpose. He said in October roughly $70,000 was restricted funds.
The district still has a ways to go before it reaches its target of maintaining a 5 percent fund balance - which would be roughly $350,000 for the district.
Monday's budget amendment included changes to a number of line items in the both the district's expenses and revenues, but Powell said the cumulative impact was growing the fund balance.
The amendments reflect an overall $241,169 increase in revenue from the original general fund budget passed in June, according to documents provided to the board, and an additional $172,829 in expenses.
The amendments leave the district expecting to having a total of $8,289,463 to appropriate and spending $8,086,224 this year.
In other action:
-The board approved the district's personnel report, hiring Adam Mackey as a special education teacher as well as several tutoring positions.
-The board also awarded the district's diesel fuel contract to Holiday Stations Store. Holiday offered a slightly better discount on fuel than the other bid submitted, according to information presented to the board.
