The School Board dove into details of the district’s expenditures during a budget work session Tuesday, looking at ways to combat the multi-million dollar deficit projected if all current services move forward.
An in-depth discussion of the district’s fund balance took place. Assistant Superintendent Dave Jones…
Jones: “So on a flat revenue, if the State gave us the same amount of money as they did last year, then the Borough would be able to give us the same amount. Taking all of that into consideration, we’d have about a $6.8 million deficit. So when we look at that, when we talked about the use of fund balance and what we could use, the three-year plan to do that, what we suggested for 2017 was use about $2.1 million.”
Jones says there is currently about $17 million in the District’s reserve fund, but that money isn’t free and clear…
Jones: “But about $10 million of that is already assigned or dedicated to be spent in certain areas.”
Factored in the deficit is a $2 million bump in healthcare costs and $1.4 million extra for salaries and benefits. The final deficit would hover around $4.7 million, the equivalent of 54 full-time teaching jobs.