By Nathan Prewett, For the Tribune
LEEDS – The Leeds Board of Education called a special session on Wednesday, Aug. 30, where they heard a proposed budget presentation and adopted a capital plan that includes a new elementary school.
The presentation by Chief Financial Officer Ryan Miller gave an overview of the district’s revenue and expenses in the general fund, federal, state, local and capital sources. The proposed budget was developed for the fiscal year beginning on Oct. 1 until Sept. 30.
“The budgeting process is designed to develop for the school system a tool in order to provide an overall plan for the use of financial resources that will best serve the needs of the current student body and to encourage the concept of site-based management,” said the proposal’s preface.
“With the implementation of site-based management, decisions for the use of the financial resources are to be made by the system’s personnel responsible for accomplishing the desired results.”
To go along with the budget, the district is required by the state to present plans for capital projects, student transportation, professional development; technology, special education, at-risk students, career/technical education, federal programs, and school safety.
As the presentation was a proposal to convey the financial status of the school district, no action was taken and none will be taken until the next regular meeting in September.
A copy of the budget can be seen here.
Later in the session, the board adopted its annually required capital plan.
“It’s essentially a well thought out wish list of things for the district looking forward,” said Superintendent John Moore. “The state uses that data to create its budget year-to-year and it helps the school district achieve those things.”
Two things of note were a new elementary school and a new athletic facility at Leeds Middle School and a drainage project there. During the Wednesday meeting, the board selected Lathan Associates Architects to perform the work, which is to fix a ditch at the middle school in order to have the facility built. The cost is estimated to be around $500,000 or possibly more.
Moore said that growth at the elementary school has prompted the need for a new building, mentioning that the current elementary school has grown by 50 students. Moore said that they have Goodwyn Mills Cawood to be the builder.
The overall project is estimated to be around $30 million.
In other business, the board:
- Approved Goodwyn Mills Cawood as the architect for the elementary school HVAC project,
- Approved contracts for speech/language, psychometry, and interpreting services, and
- Set regular meetings for the second Friday of every month at 10 a.m.
The next meeting will be held on Sept. 15, at 10 a.m., at the Leeds Board of Education Building on 1517 Hurst Avenue.