YOUR AD HERE »

School finds more money in budget for next year

Josh Nichols

The Moffat County School District has a little more money in its budget for the 2002-03 school year than administrators thought, which means the district can make some much needed capital improvements next year, Superintendent Pete Bergmann said.

At a special Moffat County Board of Education meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday night, board members will have an opportunity to decide where an additional $500,000 should be spent this coming year.

The additional money is a result of carry over dollars from this fiscal year and Amendment 23, which directs more state dollars to education in every Colorado



school district.

“We have a little more revenue than we budgeted and spent a little less this year than we thought,” Bergmann said.



Monday night’s meeting is an annual mandatory public meeting held to discuss the upcoming year’s budget.

The budget must be finalized and passed by June 30.

The board recently gave school administrators permission to look into what capital improvements they would like to see made at the different buildings in the district.

Bergmann said each building principal was consulted about what improvements they would like to have done.

“The board gave us direction to look into capital improvements,” Bergmann said. “We have a huge list of things that need to be done. Our newest building is 20 years old and in the past three to five years we have not spent as much money on capital improvements as we have in the past.”

One project already budgeted into the 2002-03 year is the replacement of carpet at Moffat County High School, which will soon be under way.

Bergmann said he asked the board for pre-approval on the $100,000 project because it had to be done during the summer when the building is empty.

Another significant piece of this year’s budget is a $1.37 an hour pay raise for all teachers’ aides in the district.

Bergmann informed the board of education at its March meeting that the raise would be included in this year’s budget.

Most of the money for those raises, which will cost about $100,000, will also come from Amendment 23.

The amendment, passed in 2000, increases education spending by the inflation rate plus 1 percent each year for a decade, and then by inflation each year after.

Bergmann said the district has numerous budgetary items to deal with now that it did not have 10 years ago including increased technology, the preschool and the English Language Learner program.

Amendment 23 will help the district in the future, he said.

“The district is in good shape financially,” he said. “We’ll be able to maintain the current level of quality instruction.”

Monday’s meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the Moffat County School Administration Building.


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around Craig and Moffat County make the Craig Press’ work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.