CROSBY – The school trustee meeting Monday featured a “balanced budget” presented by Superintendent Davis and Chief Financial Officer Jones, as many await a special audit report to show how a financial emergency came to be.
According to Scott Davis, “With this budget now, every step is a step toward working our way out. I know that because of some things in the past, the feeling is, we were burned.”
“We are four months into developing trust and relationships, painfully,” he continued.“We are defining how we go there with 129 fewer people district wide. That is hard. We are trying to figure out how to adequately clean our buildings with fewer in maintenance.”
“Four months in, I find myself wishing I had a honeymoon period. That lasted like six hours, and I know that for me, that may never come, but I am committed to doing that. I am committed to working it out. Because in four months, we have come a long stinking way. From not knowing, having a feeling, to knowing, to ‘Oh my God, we really know!’ to ‘Oh my God, this is how we are going to have to fix it.’ And in a minute, Mrs. Jones will bring you a budget, and we start crawling out.”
According to CFO Lesa Jones, “I am very excited to bring to you a balanced budget, a right-sized budget. The Superintendent, the Principals, the department directors — this is a team effort, so hours and hours spent trying to balance the budget. It is going to be a very tight budget…”
The aggregate payroll expenditure went from $4,235,875 in September to $4,098,853 in October. Regarding income, the local tax was unchanged, but the State anticipated interim revenue (from kids attending school) dropped $6,180,541, from $57,453,625 to $52,004,960.
