The Nevis School Board approved the fiscal year 2023 revised budget, which is $45,074 ahead of projections, at Monday night’s meeting.
Superintendent Gregg Parks explained that the preliminary budget often needs to be adjusted during the year.
“We have increased revenues,” he said. “Donations for our new scoreboard are now over $77,000. We also hadn’t anticipated all of the interest we’d be earning this year. That’s about $45,000 in additional revenue. Salaries also came in lower than projected in the original budget, and we were also to save money on utilities.”
There was a decrease in revenues for the district’s food service program.
“School lunch revenues decreased $97,820 with the end of federal funding,” he said. “Still, the bottom line for us is that revenues over expenditures in the new budget is a good news story for us.”
In other business, the board:
- Approved a trip to Spain for selected students in the spring of 2024 with details to be approved at a later date.
- Accepted $6,680 in donations.
- Approved Bill Dent as a long term substitute teacher.
- Heard all American Indian seniors are on target to graduate and may and will celebrate with a dinner May 17.
- Approved the AIPAC report as presented. Two American Indian students are learning the Ojibwe language.
- Approved changes to the 2023-24 K-12 calendar and approved the early childhood calendar.
- Approved Sally Kading retiring for the summer. Kading, who has been with the district for 21 years, will return in the fall.
- Approved a lease agreement for the 2024 bus. The $127,877 purchase was approved by the board at last month’s meeting. “A new bus was $80,000 nine years ago,” Parks said.
- Heard 23 people donated blood at the student council blood drive. They are looking into holding another blood drive in May.
- Heard the district’s cash balance on Feb. 28 was $1,620,113.
The next school board meeting will be at 7 p.m. Monday, Apr 24. A listening session with one school board member will be held from 6:15 to 6:45 p.m. in the school media center. To join the school board meeting via Zoom, contact Lynne Gustafson at 218-652-3500 ext. 100 or email lgustafson@nevis308.org for the link.
Lorie Skarpness has lived in the Park Rapids area since 1997 and has been writing for the Park Rapids Enterprise since 2017. She enjoys writing features about the people and wildlife who call the north woods home.
