By MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / June 5, 1999

RESERVE – The St. John the Baptist Parish School Board got its first viewof its budget at its meeting Thursday night.

Felix Boughton, director of Business Operations, presented the Comprehensive Budget for the 1999-2000 fiscal year as well as the Amended General Fund and Lunch Budget for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1999. Boughton also presented the district’s salary schedules for thefiscal year 1999-2000.

The budgets are scheduled to go before the finance committee at its next meeting June 17 at 5 p.m. A public meeting will also be held at that timeto gather input on the budget. Copies of the budget are available at thefront desk of the school board office. The budget will go up for adoption atthe regular session of the board following the committee meeting.

The amended budget showed that the school district collected $37,631,578 in total revenues in the fiscal year 1998-99, a 9.41 percentincrease over the original budget, thanks to an increase in the sales taxes collected and state and federal revenues. Expenditures were $37,392,449,with $15,127,591 coming from regular education. The ending fund balancefor the year was $999,454.

The proposed Comprehensive budget for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2000, estimates $37,438,551 collected in total revenues with $38,207,656 being spent in expenditures, finishing with an ending balance of $230,349.

The district projects that revenues from sales taxes will decrease while revenues from ad valorem taxes will remain the same. The administrationalso projects a drop in the revenues collected from state and federal sources. The largest expenditures ($15,465,472) are projected to againcome from regular education.

Boughton said that the salary schedules will remain the same for this year.

In other financial business, the board approved a policy requiring all program budgets of $10,000 or more to be brought before the finance committee before being brought to the board for adoption.

In business related to auxiliary services, the board approved an amendment to the Use of Facilities policy disallowing the movement of any furniture or equipment from one school to another for anything but school related activities. In a related item, the board approved a requestfor the purchase of tables, chairs and caddies for various schools at a cost of $14,151.12. Nathan Stein, executive manager of finance, had been askedby the board at an earlier meeting to poll each school for their needs.

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