The budget committee and members of the School Board discussed the deficit Wednesday night.
The plan so far is to use the special education fund, which has a balance of $355,000, to replenish the school budget.
Budget committee members explained that this money, which has been put away a little at a time over the last few years, was a rainy day fund.
School Board Chairman Wayne Temmen said part of the deficit was because reimbursement from the state for funds spent on students with disabilities does not come in "until we close the books," so the school doesn't always get what they anticipate.
The school also spent $148,000 for private tuition, something they are required to do if the school meets certain criteria and a resident of Hinsdale wishes to send a child to a private school. Also, the tuition for these schools are set after the School Board finishes its budget, making it difficult to anticipate how much to set aside.
The deficit was not a result of the construction project, Temmen said, but extras the board chose to do did add to this, including putting a new, $84,000 roof on the elementary school.
"We tried to rake every dollar out of it we could," he said, adding that the result was a good school building.
School Board member
The board also made the move to privatize the food service in school, which would mean, at most, a loss of $12,000, compared to the potential $80,000 if they continued it themselves, due to costs for employees and benefits.
Temmen did make a point to let residents know that the board had no intentions of cutting any fall sports for the upcoming year, explaining that it would be unfair to the students so close to the season.
However, the board would look into whether the sports teams could compete with more local teams to cut back on gas or try to have boys' and girls' competitions on the same day.
Nicole Orne can be reached at norne@reformer.com or 802-254-2311, ext. 277.
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