FARMINGTON — Regional School Unit 9 directors learned Tuesday that Cape Cod Hill School in New Sharon may exceed its operations budget, but business manager Kris Pottle said a contingency is in place.
Jonathan Chalmers, director of support services, said scheduled work on the school roof and bell tower over the summer included unexpected repairs. The lining to the school’s wood pellet burner failed which was a $7,000 repair.
“Monday we lost the walk-in freezer,” Chalmers said. “These were all unexpected.”
The school has 32 percent of the operations budget left.
“The school may exceed its operations budget but we have a $40,000 district operations contingency,” Pottle said.
Pottle said the overall Dec. 31 financial report was favorable.
“We are halfway through the fiscal year and, excluding debt, we have 53.77 percent of the overall budget remaining,” she said.
The majority of debt payments are made in October, Superintendent Tina Meserve said. Including debt in the report would not give a good indicator of the budget health, she said.
A timeline of 2019-20 budget work will be presented at the first board budget meeting Tuesday, Jan. 29. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at Mt. Blue High School.
In other matters, Director Jeffery Harris of New Sharon said the operations committee reviewed the bus walking policy in December. The policy states that students in pre-K through grade five are entitled to transportation between home and school if they live more than half a mile from the school they are assigned, but they may be required to walk up to half a mile to an established bus stop. Students in grades six through 12 may be required to walk up to a mile to school or a bus stop.
“If there was a change in the policy, we are going to have to add more bus drivers and bus routes,” Harris said. “Bus drivers are already needed, not only in the district but across the country.”
dmenear@thefranklinjournal.com
Regional School Unit 9 Directors Carol Coles, left, Jeffery Harris and Doug Dunlap review a field trip request Tuesday at a meeting in Farmington. The board unanimously approved a Mt. Blue High School softball team trip to the Cal Ripken Experience in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, April 10-15. (Franklin Journal photo by Dee Menear)
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