Salem Grade School Superintendent Dr. Leslie Foppe was excited to announce at Thursday night’s school board meeting that the tentative budget for the coming school year is in the black. Foppe says that’s a big turnaround from the $1,525,000 deficit for the fiscal year ending June 30th.
Foppe says some cutbacks had to be made to bring expenses in line with revenue. They include going to a less expensive health insurance program, not replacing three teachers who retired last year and not bringing back three aids.
“Where the numbers are lower, where our classrooms still have about twenty kids even with a lower section, we moved those teachers to accommodate the higher sections,” Foppe said. “We didn’t have to bring anybody new in. The title aids, it’s not that we don’t need them, they did a wonderful job and we’re going to miss them dearly doing that, because they were giving the kids extra time with reading. However, our Title One grant has gone down in numbers, and we weren’t able to sustain that.”
The budget is also being helped by the state. The district will receive $275,000 in additional general state aid and $91,731 in corporate income tax replacement money. Foppe says there are still some uncertainties so final numbers won’t be available until the budget comes up for adoption at the September 24th meeting after a public hearing.
The board is expected to make a decision at its next meeting on replacement of one of the air conditioning units at Hawthorn that is believed to be close to the end of its life. The estimated $226,000 cost would be covered by the district’s one-cent tax levy to support schools.
Salem Grade School District is starting the year with 400 students at Hawthorn and 504 students at Franklin Park Middle School.
The board accepted the resignation of Christina Hays as a paraprofessional and Marita Williams as track coach for the current school year.
