Fiscal forecast shows surplus in each of 5 years

By ELISE McKEOWN SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
HUBBARD -- The board of education approved a five-year fiscal forecast that shows a budget surplus at the end of each year.
"I was very, very conservative in my forecasting, in terms of revenues, in terms of expenditures," said Blaise Karlovic, district treasurer, after Monday's board meeting.
A new governor will take office in January, he pointed out, making him uncertain whether state school funding will increase or decrease.
The successful passage of a renewal levy in 2010 will be necessary for the plan to work as forecasted, however, Karlovic said.
"We're going to expand in terms of instructional enhancements," Karlovic said.
The board committed 300,000 a year for new textbooks, he noted. It also will commit 200,000 for updating the computer systems throughout the district because much of the current hardware and software being used is out of date, he said.
"We want to bring that up to date so the teachers and our students have top-of-the-line instructional tools available to them," Karlovic said.
Science program
The board also approved a stipend for 12 teachers to be paid through the Ohio Department of Education's Science Implementation Grant, which was 7,500.
"Our whole science department is working on this program model for the future of science in Ohio," said Dr. Lucille Esposito, the district's assistant superintendent. The district is one of four in the state to receive the state grant, she said.
It will enable the teachers to be part of developing a curriculum and implementation plan for a science program model selected by the ODE.
"It will benefit our children because we do a good job of teaching science, but we need to do a better job of teaching science," Esposito said. "This is going to be looking at science [in grades] seven through 12 in not only the delivery, but the how and what."
In other business, the board heard a report from Craig Yaniglos, aquatics director, on the community pool.
The pool, owned by the school district, closed in December 2003 because of safety issues, but it reopened in May 2005. Since that time, Yaniglos has been able to increase program offerings to both the school district and the community and has seen an increase in revenue.