The Eastern Pulaski Community School Corporation is getting ready for the new school funding structure set to take effect in 2019. The school board adopted a resolution Monday to establish new Education and Operations funds, according to Superintendent Dan Foster.
“The Education Fund will take the place of the General Fund, and Operations Fund will take the place of the Bus Replacement, Transportation, and Capital Projects funds,” Foster explains. “And since we have to have a budget on January 1 of 2019, we have to establish those funds.”
The school board also passed a pair of resolutions authorizing the corporation treasurer to officially transfer the money at the end of the year. “December 31, the General Fund balance becomes the Education Fund balance,” Foster says, “and at the end of business December 31, the Bus Replacement, Transportation Operating Fund, and the Capital Projects Fund balances will become the Operations Fund balance.”
Foster says the changes were required by Indiana House Bill 1009. “We have to operate [beyond] January 1, and if we want to operate and keep our doors open, we have to do this. So there really wasn’t a whole lot of choice in establishing the funds and the initial funding for that.”
However, it’s anticipated that certain expenses that currently come out of the General Fund will actually have to be paid out of the Operations Fund in the new structure, since the Education Fund will be strictly for student instruction and learning. That means some more budget transfers may be needed, once the new structure goes into effect.
