Van Buren Public Schools approve funds’ audit, amendments

Laura Payne of Taylor & Morgan CPAs presented the financial audit of the Van Buren Public Schools’ budgets for 2020-21 that ended June 30.
She started off her presentation at the beginning of the Nov. 22 in-person meeting by announcing the district received an “unmodified audit opinion,” which is the best.
Payne said during the last school year there were 4,510 students and each was worth $8,228 in state aid.
Revenues were way up and expenses were almost identical to the year before. She said there was $3 million in federal revenue and “You had good use of ESSER and COVID Relief funds.”
Fund balance for the general fund was $12,868,601 on June 30, which is 24.58% of the total budget. This is up $3,703,837 from the $9,164,764 fund balance of the previous school year.
Food service funds were down, she said. That was because of COVID and the students not being in school. The food service fund balance decreased from $650,189 the previous year to $311,929 during the 2020-21 school year.
Athletic funds showed $576,039 transferred from the general fund, up $9,544 from the budgeted amount. Athletic revenue for the year was $75,048.
After the audit report was complete and accepted by the board, school Finance Director Sarah Cortese presented general fund budget amendments for the current 2021-22, budget which the board also approved.
Cortese said she had to put the annual budget before the board in June based on guesses because of the difference in fiscal years between the school district and the state. She said the state doesn’t give real numbers of how much the local district is getting until August or later.
She said the state aid, property tax, and grants increased by $2.88 million. Total revenue was $69 million.
The budget amendments included putting the athletic trainer in the budget instead of paying the trainer out of donations, as in the past. It also included changing the original setting aside of funds for a proposed loss of 75 students this fall and reduced that to 50 students.
A total of 4,321.50 students was expected in the fall and it had to be upgraded to 4,334.09. A projected staff of 550 was adjusted to the 566 figure on Nov. 1.
In other business at the 47-minute open meeting, the board:
• Approved the termination of Transportation employee Balencia Jones as of Nov. 10 after zero years of service;
• Approved the resignations of Nicole Beckham, human relations specialist at the administration building for five years, as of Nov. 30 for a job opportunity; and Angela Mercer, student services administrative assistant at the administration building for five years, as of Dec. 14 for a job opportunity;
• Approved hiring Bobby Lindsey, Kayla Fisher, and Shalanda Chatmon as bus aides; Cheri Dehn and Theresa Harris as paraprofessionals in student services; Kyle Price in maintenance; and Dawn Boone as a bus driver;
• Heard Nila Hooper, a junior at BHS and student school board member, give a report on upcoming events at BHS;
• Heard Supt. Kudlak announce that of the 50 teams in the recent Air Rifle competition, the Belleville High School team placed 19th out of 50. BHS shooter Ashley Wang placed 38th overall out of 225 in the Individual 3×20; and
After the public meeting, the board went into closed-door session to begin the periodic personnel evaluation of Supt. Kudlak.