Tentative budget also approved

•August 26, 2015•

by Keith Stewart
keith@newsprogress.com

Between July and August, the Sullivan school board approved both a teacher’s union contract and a tentative budget for fiscal year 2016.

At their July 13 meeting, the board presented what is the first budget of the new fiscal year, which began July 1. Known as the tentative budget, it tries to predict not only what expenses the district will incur over the next year but also the much more tricky area of revenue at a time when state funding for K-12 education continues to be unreliable.

The budget does show the district spending more than $400,000 than it estimates bringing in, but Superintendent Brad Tuttle reported to the board that not only do tentative budgets usually contain contingencies that may later be taken out, but that this budget, in particular, is better than other tentative budgets in the past.

“Obviously this is a work in progress,” said Tuttle. “As you work a tentative budget, you have a lot of contingencies and a lot of things throughout that. This one in particular is better than what we’ve had in a while. It is showing a deficit…[but] “at this point I feel it’s in a lot better shape than what we have been in the past at this point.”

A look back at the FY15 tentative budget does support Tuttle’s comments. In particular, that budget estimated deficit spending of $464,213 compared to this year’s tentative budget, which anticipates $417,786. The estimated fund balance across the four major operating funds is also estimated to improve by more than $71,000 thanks, also, to more than $107,000 less in anticipated expenses.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.