Tri-County School’s budget improving

Tri-County Schools’ financial state is improving. At the April 18 school board meeting held at the Halma Hall, Superintendent/Principal Ryan Baron discussed the 2017-2018 budget with the school board.

Baron is pleased with the direction the finances are going. “It’s healthy,” he said. “It’s a good amount for what we need for our district to keep us stable and to build on that general fund reserve to keep us a healthy school district.”

Baron said this is a re-building stage of the school’s general fund. Once the general fund reaches an amount he and the school board feel comfortable with, the levy could be looked at and lowered to just what they need to balance the budget. For now, he said, keeping the levy up is necessary for rebuilding the reserves.

The guideline is 15% of the budget in the general fund, but Baron would feel more comfortable with 20%. With an already small budget, 15% isn’t much if a bus were to go down, for example.

Final estimate of 2017-2018 revenue is $3,859,013. Final estimate for expenditures is $3,597,178. Baron said these estimates are fairly close to what the final numbers are expected to be for the 2017-2018 budget.

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