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Lakeland School Board Puts 2018-19 Budget On Hold

pixabay.com

 
MINOCQUA – The Lakeland school board of education Monday put its proposed 2018-19 budget on hold until it gets some clarification on soaring pre-opening costs for the two new charter schools for autistic students.

Last month, the board was told pre-opening costs for the two charters would come in at about $220,000. But the latest budget proposal headed for the annual meeting lists $365,000 for those costs, which were approved by the governing council that oversees the charters.

Finance manager Greg Kopp reports on the increased figures:

"Initially, we built in $100,000 in pre-opening costs for the charters. And then we increased it there to $170,000. And then we increased it from there to $220,000. The governing council was the body kinda approving the bulk of expenditures there when it came to renovation of the building, furniture and everything else. And then we approved the additions to the building that we would have incurred no matter what the use was in way of fiber optics, security and phone systems.”

The higher costs took board members by surprise, including Pamela Carroll.

“This is putting us in a really uncomfortable position for 15 students. And yes we do want it to succeed. But we also have to be fiscally responsible for the other 699 in our building.”

Barry Seidel moved to table the budget until, as he said, “the blanks are filled in.”

The board now wants to hold a special meeting with the charter schools’ governing council or its representative for a better understanding of those increased costs and the impact on the overall LUHS budget

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