FULTON – The Fulton City School District Board of Education met virtually last night, April 13, and discussed updates to the 2021-2022 budget, options to close the budget’s current gap, and anticipated federal and state grants and aid.
Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act: $4,149,807 can be applied March 13, 2020 through September 30, 2022. This is not readily available to the district right now, and has to go through an application process. This is a one-time allocation and can only be used for listed allowable costs.
Director of Finance Kathy Nichols said this is separate from the general budget.
“None of these funds are used to balance this year’s budget,” Superintendent Brian Pulvino said. “This is an allocation and there’s an application that goes along with this… Every dollar that we spend out of this, we need to be very calculated; that we’re looking at ‘How does it help us make the biggest impacts now in developing a sustainable future?’”
American Rescue Plan: $10,303,298 can be applied March 13, 2020 through September 30, 2023 (possible to be extended to 2024). This funding is a one-time allocation with an allowable use over multiple years. At least 20% of this funding must be used to address issues of learning loss amongst students. This is also separate from the general budget.
Pulvino also presented highlights from the state’s finalized budget. He said 68% of the district’s budget is dependent on state aid. Foundation Aid for the district has increased by $1,426,043. Pulvino reported that STAR funding and a proposal to consolidate expense-based aids to a new Services Aid category were both rejected, but will work out better for the district. Pre-Kindergarten funding is back to its original amount and the district is now accepting new Pre-K student registration. The governor’s proposal to guarantee low-cost broadband to low-income families was accepted and is a positive for the district. An issue for the district is that the FCSD Transportation Forgiveness Bill was rejected. A 4% CAP remains for unappropriated fund balance.
Pulvino reported if there is a 0% levy increase or no use of reserves, the budget will have a shortfall of $356,874. This is in part due to the loss of anticipated funds from Attis.
Some options to close that gap include to use reserves, increase the tax levy or to make additional reductions to the budget.
An increase of 1% to the tax levy would equate to an additional $216,000 in revenue, and 2% would equate to an additional $432,000.
At this point in time, Pulvino recommended to the board to choose the option of using the reserves to close the gap in the budget. The board’s general consensus was also to use the reserves.
“We’re gonna try to make sure that we spend and plan, we plan and design to maximize opportunities for this community that lay the foundation of the future when they may not have that type of funding available,” Pulvino said in regards to using the federal stimulus funds.
There will be another meeting Tuesday, April 20 where the board will be presented with updated numbers in the budget.
Also during the meeting, Director of the Fulton Public Library, Caroline Chatterton, joined to discuss a tax proposition from the library board of trustees. The board proposes to levy and collect an annual tax separate and apart from the annual school district budget in the amount of $447,384 to continue to support the library’s operations until modified by a future vote of the taxpayers in the Fulton school district. For questions from the public, they can contact the library by visiting https://www.fultonpubliclibrary.org. Chatterton said the library is planning on reopening its building on May 3.
Parent University kicked off Monday night, and Director of Human Resources and Student Services Geri Geitner gave an overview of the program’s sessions this week. Families and caregivers can access this program here. The program goes until Saturday afternoon.
“We are encouraging everybody to take a look at what’s out there,” Geitner said.
Agenda items and documents from the meeting can be found here. The full meeting can be viewed in the video link provided above.
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