(Spirit Lake)– Finances were again a major topic of discussion at Monday’s Spirit Lake school board meeting.
The meeting opened with a public hearing on a proposal to extend the district’s instructional support levy another five years. While some questions were asked by the crowd, noone spoke in opposition to the issue.
The levy consists of a combination of property tax and income surtax. School officials estimate it would generate about 696-thousand dollars for the upcoming school year.
The levy funds several positions, including Curriculum Director, Sami Center Director, a librarian, an elementary teacher and the district’s Technical Director.
The board voted unanimously later in the meeting to renew the levy another five years.
The board also reviewed documents to be presented when district officials meet March 12th with the state’s School Budget Review Committee to plead their case for 442,917-dollars in additional modified allowable growth to cover a negative unspent balance in the current fiscal year’s budget.
A portion of the documentation includes a proposal on how the district will prevent such a thing from happening again.
The board approved both sets of documents that will be presented to the committee.
Interim Superintendent Doug Latham says he’s optimistic the committee will approve the district’s request since it’s the first time Spirit Lake has had to come to them.
The board also Monday adopted a new one-time early retirement incentive for school employees.
