Rochester School Bd. Prepares

For 2007-08 Budget Re-Vote

By Martha Slater

The Rochester School Board met Thursday, June 7 to prepare for a re-vote on the proposed 2007-08 school year budget of $3,233,864. The re-vote meeting will take place Monday, June 18 at 7 p.m. in the high school auditorium.

WNWSU business manager Ollie Jakob, school treasurer Jean White and school board members Beth Frock and Barb DeHart have worked together to come to a conclusion regarding the various questions surrounding the deficit (referred to as a "fund balance"), and the loan that the town agreed to take out during last year’s budget approval process.

Jakob read his assessment on understanding the fund balance to those at the meeting. The bad news is that final audit figure for the 05-06 school year leaves a fund balance of $155,843; which is $17,116 higher than originally thought.

After an exhaustive review of the topic, it was decided that there would be no change in the current budgeted figure. That budget figure remains under the threshold penalty and there would not be any money borrowed at this time. Some adjustments will need to be made to the line items in the current budget in order to stay under the threshold penalty.

The first decision to be made by Rochester voters at the June 18 meeting will be whether or not they need to re-vote the budget at all. If they choose not to vote, then the decision made May 7 to approve the budget stands and everyone will go home.

If they choose to have a re-vote, then they have two choices: vote on the warned figure or amend that figure from the floor, and vote on the amended amount. If a budget figure is not passed, then a third meeting must be warned.

WNWSU Tim Mock will, with board input, create an informational sheet to present to the taxpayers at the June 18 meeting, so they can make an informed decision about any changes before any voting takes place.

Board chair Tim Crowley had begun the meeting by reading a brief statement in memory of contributions to the community made by Charlie Biederman, Royce Gage and Bill Hall, three local men who had all died within the past week.

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