Ephrata School Board reviews budget

EPHRATA - The school board will meet next Tuesday at 6:30 a.m. to approve a $23.8 million budget for the 2012-13 school year.

Sally Ryan, the district's business manager, reviewed the budget at the board's regular meeting Monday. The budget projects an enrollment of 2,173 students, a drop of 43 students from the projection for the 2011-12 school year.

General fund revenues were projected at $21.7 million; the general fund includes all employee salaries, food service costs, building and grounds maintenance, the district's portion of extracurricular activities and most other expenses.

The capital projects fund was budgeted at $1.1 million. Ryan said district officials don't necessarily anticipate spending the money, but wanted the option to do so without being forced to rewrite that part of the budget and have the school board approve it (a process called a budget revision.)

The transportation vehicle fund, money dedicated to the purchase of new buses, was projected at $221,000. If district officials decide to buy a bus this year, the cost will be covered by money generated through depreciation payments on the district's existing bus fleet, Ryan said

The debt service fund was projected at $194,100, and the Associated Student Body fund was budgeted at $509,613.

The district's reserve fund (its savings) is projected to be $3.5 million, approximately 9 percent of its expenses, Ryan said. For a district Ephrata's size, the state recommends a reserve of about 8.3 percent, she said.

The reserve has increased over the last couple years, Ryan said. Superintendent Jerry Simon said the district cut about $900,000 in expenses in one year and about $450,000 the year before that. Ephrata is eligible for levy equalization, and payments were increased by about 2 percent, which really helped the district, Simon said. (Levy equalization is paid by the state to districts with relatively lower property value that pass a maintenance and operations levy.)

In other business, Ray Towry presented plans for new playground equipment at Columbia Ridge Elementary School. District and city of Ephrata officials applied for and received two grants to pay for the equipment, installation and required ground cover. The city was the lead agency, and the Ephrata City Council awarded the bid at its last council meeting, Towry said.

Towry showed board members a copy of the construction plan, which has three new toys, including a swing set, one piece dedicated to primary grades and one piece for third through fifth graders.

Towry said construction should be completed by mid-September.