The Eastern Pulaski School Board formally adopted the corporation’s 2018 budget Monday.
Superintendent Dan Foster says the corporation’s financial outlook looks positive. “Right now, the enrollment is supporting our budget, so we’re thankful of that,” he says. “We were down last year, so we had to use our cash balance a little bit. This year, we’ve gone back up some, so that should help us.”
Eastern Pulaski’s 2018 budget calls for a General Fund of nearly $9.1 million and a Capital Projects Fund of over $2 million. School officials have also decided to make $1 million of the corporation’s Rainy Day Fund available for possible use next year.
As part of the annual budget process, the school board also approved Eastern Pulaski’s 2018-2029 Bus Replacement Plan. “The Bus Replacement Plan is pretty much what we’ve been following the last few years,” Foster explains. “We’ll have a couple buses on there again this year.”
Foster adds that Eastern Pulaski’s Capital Projects Plan includes some paving and concrete work the corporation wasn’t able to complete this past summer. “We hope to get that back out to bid sometime in November or perhaps December for next summer. So it does show a little bit higher in Capital Projects, but that’s because we did not use it last summer.”
The asphalt work was one of several projects planned, after there was some money left over from the corporation’s recent renovation project. However, board members decided to hold off on the paving, after only one bid was received for the work.
