Salem schools likely to escape fiscal watch

Boosters will pay for a new concession booth at the baseball field.

STAFF REPORT

SALEM — The Salem school district should soon be out of a state fiscal watch.

Jill Rowe, district treasurer, said that if the watch is ended, the district will go back to being designated as a regular school.

Former state Auditor Betty Montgomery placed the district in the watch Sept. 30, 2005.

At that time, deficits were expected for the fiscal years ending June 30, 2006, and 2007.

The district submitted a plan to Montgomery’s office to avoid the deficits. The state treasurer’s office, along with the Ohio auditor’s office, agreed that the plan was not acceptable and put the district in a fiscal watch, which means a district’s deficit exceeds 8 percent of the district’s general fund.

Rowe said that the general fund for the school district is about $18 million a year, and about $25 million a year for all funds.

Rowe said that the key to the district’s coming out of the watch was finding insurance at a lower cost.

She said the district should be out of the watch by December.

In other action, the athletic boosters announced they had funds to build a concession stand at the district’s baseball field. It will also serve as an announcer’s box. The amount was not disclosed. No school money will be involved.

It was also announced that the Southeast School Parent Teacher Organization had raised more than $4,000 at its recent book fair and purchased more than $1,000 worth of books for classroom use and school libraries and for student- incentive prizes.