DARLINGTON – The Darlington School Board of Education held their annual meeting Monday night, Aug. 28 at the large group room in the DEMS building.
The board clerk, Teresa Siegenthaler gave the statement of receipts, expenditures and balances for the 2016-2017 school year. The beginning balance of the General Fund: Fund 10 was $3,011,250.98 with $9,812,382.40 in revenue and $9,765,823.78 in expenditures with an ending balance of $3,057,809.60. The Debt Service Fund (Funds 38 and 39) had a beginning balance of $211,167.81 with $253,375.49 in revenue and $453,515.00 in expenditures with an ending balance of $11,028.30. School board president, Aaron Wolfe explained that the change in the Debt Services Fund was due to debt being retired.
There was a significant change in Capital Projects Fund due to the district borrowing $4,000,000 for their capital projects being done at the high school this year and next year. The beginning balance was $1,000 with revenue of $4,306,538.72 and expenditures of $479,703.83 with an ending balance of $3,827,834.89.
Rodney Lindell asked if the ending balance on the capital projects would cover the entire cost of the projects. Wolfe stated they were on track to having the entire project covered with the loan. They won’t know for sure until bids come in for the projects that will be completed next year.
District Administrator Denise Wellnitz addressed the budget adoption for the 2017-2018 school year. The beginning balance starts at $3,057,809.60 with an ending balance of $2,975,150.60. Wellnitz noted that the DEMS building would be paid off so the only debt the district will have will be the $4,000,000 loan that will be paid over 10 years.
Lindell inquired if the State Aid, listed at $69,000 for categorical and $5,773,196 for general, was a concrete number for the district. Wellnitz stated that because the budget has not been adopted so it is only a projected number based on the current data. The data is constantly going in and finalized in mid-October in time for the district to set the levy. It is the best estimate that DPI can give the district. Wellnitz did believe that with the number of students increasing, the number should be an increase over last year.
Special Board meeting
At the Darlington School Board of Education special board meeting before the annual meeting, the board approved:
-Kalee Crist as a Volunteer Assistant Cross Country Coach.
-the resignation of Lorrie Reed as a Teaching Assistant.
-gas bids for transportation from the Mini Mart at $2.14 for diesel and $2.01 for unleaded. Those are the current prices and will fluctuate when gas prices change. The price listed is the price without taxes.
-Emily Britz as a Teaching Assistant.