USD 253 Board of Education members gave final approval to the 2021 fiscal year budget Wednesday evening.
The total operating budget comes out to over $104 million including a general fund of just over $33 million. Scheib says this is the largest general fund the district has had to operate with since 2008.
Scheib says this is extremely beneficial to the district from a competitive standpoint.
The budget also carries a mill levy of 53.287, seven-tenths of a mill lower than the previous year’s budget.
In other business, the board unanimously accepted the guaranteed maximum price (GMP) for Walnut Elementary School as part of the district’s $78 million Building for the Future improvement project. The total price for work on Walnut comes out to just over $5.84 million, more than $264,000 below the $7 million budget.
McCownGordon project estimator Charlie Ochs says all three projects in the initiatives first phase, Walnut, Emporia High School and the district’s new early learning center, are under budget at this time. This is an impressive accomplishment considering these projects are the three most “intensive” according to Zach Snethen of HTK Architects.
Current plans have construction beginning at Walnut in October with the learning center and Emporia High to follow.
In other business, the board approved the adoption of books for Construction of Pathways Courses, new Title IX regulations and continued discussions on reopening plans for the upcoming school year set to begin Sept. 2.
The USD 253 Board of Education is scheduled to reconvene Aug. 26 at 7 pm, however, the board may call a special meeting next Wednesday if needed to continue reopening discussions.
