D-12 approves budget

From the Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2008 edition of the Northwest Herald:

D-12 approves budget
DIANA SROKA - dsroka@nwherald.com

JOHNSBURG – The District 12 school board approved a $27.8 million budget for the 2008-09 school year Tuesday.

The budget, which was approved unanimously by the six board members present at the meeting, includes an anticipated almost $300,000 in deficit spending.

"Our goal is to reduce this and come under that number," said Michael Wolf, board vice president.

At the meeting, Wolf noted that last year the district anticipated more than $560,000 in deficit spending, but spent just less than $300,000 in deficit spending.

While discussing the budget, board members emphasized the need for the district to invest in technology improvements throughout the district. Some computers in the district are still using Windows 98, Wolf said.

"Computer equipment needs to be updated and replaced," Wolf said. "We need to get away from some of these obsolete equipment."

The board also unanimously approved a motion to submit the district policy manual for review by Illinois Association of School Boards, or IASB.

The district will pay a one-time fee of $5,800 to have the district policy manual reviewed by ISAB consultants on a regular basis.

Board Secretary Thomas Low said using IASB would make the policy review process more efficient.

"We spend a lot of time manually updating it," Low said.

Superintendent Dan Johnson said in previous years, it was easier to keep policies up to date because "state law wasn't changing quite as rapidly."

He said it also had been the case that policies don't receive close review until the district reviews policies to address a specific incident, which sometimes is too late.

"By that time the ship has sailed," Johnson said.

Board members Scott Rowe, Jayne Thompson, Thomas Lowe, Melissa Tinsley, Michael Wolf, Gary Barla were present at the meeting. Tom Liston was absent.