School Board Tweaks Draft Budget as Process Nears End
The Huntington School Board will wrap-up the 2010/11 budget development process next Monday, April 19 at a meeting scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the Huntington High School auditorium.
Trustees took a number of actions during their meeting this past Monday night, trimming several spending items and restoring some cuts made in an earlier draft budget.
A high school guidance counselor position which had been targeted for elimination has been restored for the 2010 fall semester. Several athletic teams that were slated to be dropped are now back in the proposed budget and cuts to athletic team transportation has been reversed.
After the district was told to brace itself for a possible double digit increase in health care premiums next year, trustees decided to add another $350,000 to that budget line.
To offset some of the restorations, school board members reduced the line in the draft budget for legal fees by $62,000. Trustees also revised downward by $42,000 the expected increase in bus transportation costs for the next school year.
Superintendent John J. Finello said the projected tax increase is now in the “neighborhood” of 3.5 percent, but that it not finalized. “The budget is fluid until the school board adopts it and sends it to residents,” Mr. Finello said.
The district is still waiting for the state to finalize its own budget so school officials can get a better handle on exactly how much state aid Huntington can expect to receive next year.
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