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Thursday, May 17, 2007

Deficit Less Than Reported

By Beth Hahn
Mountain View Telegraph
    The Moriarty school district will not need as much emergency funding as originally anticipated in its 2007-08 preliminary budget.
    District officials told the school board Tuesday that there were a few "minor mistakes" in the first draft of the 2007-08 budget.
    By correcting the mistakes, the district will shave about $120,000 off its expected shortfall and will apply for about $630,000 in emergency funding from the state, rather than $750,000.
    The largest mistake, said business director Marla Lovato, was that school counselors were placed on an incorrect salary schedule— adding about $40,000 to $50,000 to the district's deficit.
    Superintendent Karen Couch said the district will not receive word on the emergency funds until December or January.
    The state Public Education Department has already funded Moriarty with about $480,000 in emergency funds for the 2006-07 year. Since the school year is almost complete, Couch said, the district has permission to use the emergency funds to help offset a $1.3 million deficit in 2007-08.
    In other business Tuesday, the board:
   

Discussed purchasing security cameras for the Moriarty High School campus.
    The school has experienced several instances of vandalism including graffiti and broken windows, according to MHS Principal Wayne Marshall. Replacing the broken windows alone has cost MHS about $5,000, he said.
    Marshall said school staff often have an idea of when a vandalism incident occurred, but do not know which students were present at the time of the crime.
    Security cameras in strategic locations would enable school staff to pinpoint which students were in the area damaged at the time the damage occurs, he said.
    Preliminary cost estimates for 24 security cameras are about $30,000.
    Marshall said he thinks the security cameras would "pay for themselves very quickly" in vandalism incidents solved or avoided.
    Board members could revisit the issue during their June 19 meeting.
   

Asked district nutritional services personnel to write a policy on late or nonpayments for student lunches.
    Nutritional services director Hilda Candelaria told the board that several families who do not qualify for free or reduced-price lunches have refused to pay for their children's meals.
    One family, she said, has a $150 tab for failing to pay for the $1.50 meals.
    Candelaria said one option for dealing with nonpayment is to serve an alternative meal of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to students who do not pay for their lunches.
    Students will be allowed to receive the regular meal three times on a credit basis, but then will be served the sandwiches until they pay off what they owe for past meals, she said.
    Route 66 Elementary Principal Selia Gomez told the board that many children choose the alternative lunch of peanut butter and jelly over the regular food, anyway.
    "The kids really don't mind the alternative meal," she said.
    Candelaria speculated that increased gasoline prices and utilities costs could be driving some families to cut back on lunch money for school.
    If families cannot afford the $1.50 lunch price, though, Candelaria said they need to fill out an application for a free or reduced-price meal plan that will allow their child to eat meals at school for little or no cost.
    Every child at Moriarty Elementary receives lunch for free, because more than 80 percent of the school's children qualify for free or reduced-price meals. Mountainview Elementary qualified to start the program for the 2007-08 school year.