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Forecast for district shows improvement
McDONALD
Bill Johnson, treasurer of the McDonald School District, said there is a “little bit” of improvement in the district’s five-year forecast, which is required twice a year now by the state, but “nothing remarkable.”
Johnson said the district will get money back from the State Employees Retirement System due to the district allowing too much to the system since staffing cuts have been made.
Johnson said he will be able to remove $3,000 a month in payments.
He noted there is nothing substantially different in the five-year forecast from the May forecast.
The district has made some permanent improvements, including purchasing a new bus this summer, and has upgraded a small computer lab at the high school, adding 10 new, faster computers for the multimedia classes. The old computers will be used for general tasks such as word processing.
A computer lab at the elementary school had 30 new computers put in.
Johnson said the expected cost of the computer replacements will come in at under $15,000.
Projections in the five-year forecast are for balances of: $1.358 million in fiscal year 2013, which began July 1 ($1.323 million in May projection); $1.883 million in 2014 ($1.858 million in May); $2.031 million in 2015, ($2.021 million in May) $2.101 million in 2016 ($2.096 million in May) and $2.039 million in 2017.
The district was removed from state fiscal emer- gency earlier this year.
In other business at Monday’s meeting, the board approved renewing a contract with Weathersfield schools for bus-mechanic services at a rate of $30 an hour. Since unexpected repairs can’t be projected, no final dollar amount for the contract has been set. Repair expenses last year totaled $1,500.
The district has added a new bus this year and plans to purchase another new bus next year. Johnson said there are five buses in the fleet, and one bus, the least dependable, was taken out of service after a new bus was purchased.
The board also accepted anonymous donation of $500 for the football program, and a donation from Jennifer Sperati for $500 to the football program in honor of her husband, the late Bill Sperati.