Negaunee’s Board of Education approves district’s 2014-15 budget

Negaunee’s Board of Education approved the school district’s budget for the 2014-15 fiscal year Monday night.

The school district will have to take about $400,000 from its general fund to balance the budget.  Even with the district’s deficit, outgoing superintendent Jim Derocher said it’s not out of the ordinary for the district to tap into the general fund.

“We budget very conservatively at this point in the year because its a guess, so no it’s not unusual for us to dip into the fund balance and its not unusual for us at the end of the fiscal year and when we do our audit we’re not actually using all the $400,000 we’re projecting that this point in time but it’s a number less than that,” he said.

$100,000 of the $400,000 will go towards hiring two teachers.

“The administration is suggesting and recommending that we add two new staff members, so that’s about $100,000 that we’re adding to the expense side of the budget for next year so that we keep low class sizes, so the board in the past has been agreeable to do that for us because we’re here to try to present the best possible education program, and having 26/27 in a second grade classroom is not ideal.  We’re going to add a section there so that’s an added expense that’s not in this year’s budget,” Derocher said.

The other $300,000 will be transferred into the district’s food fund and athletic budget.  Right now, the district has $2 million in its general fund budget.