Brownwood ISD is getting ready to work on their budget for the next school year, and officials are optimistic that the budget will be much healthier than 2012/2013.
“We will have a $677,000 deficit,” said Deputy Superintendent Kevin Gabaree regarding fiscal year-end projections for the 2012/2013 school budget.
He explained that $415,000 of that deficit was already accounted for in this year’s deficit budget, but because of a decrease in average daily attendance for the year, the district will experience a heavier loss than expected.
“When you subtract that from our fund balance, that still will leave us in the $4.1 – $4.2 million range,” Gabaree said. “We are still over $4 million after this difficult year, so that is a positive.”
Looking forward, because of an expected increase in funding from the state after the recently ended legislative session, district officials are going to propose to the board of trustees next month a bigger budget of $24,257,894, up a little over $900,000 of the 2012/2013 approved budget.
“First and foremost, we are going to be able to present to you a balanced budget in August,” Gabaree told the board. “We have made these revenue projections and we have been able to go in and take care of some needs that we have had that we have put off.”Gabaree said that the budget he will present to the board next month will include the purchase of a new bus, a new ag vehicle, band supply upgrades, new teacher laptops, new campus security equipment and pay increases for all employees including substitute teachers.
The BISD board of trustees will discuss the budget in detail in a workshop on August 19th and will approve a budget for 2013/2014 on August 26th.
