RC Superintendent Tidbits
By: Mark Otten
The budget work for the 2022-2023 school year is going strong. Before I lose you just from mentioning the word “budget”, I want to ensure you it is not all doom and gloom. Over the past two years, we have had to tighten the purse strings and we also had to ask for more from our people. When we did this, we knew it would take a few years to dig out of the hole that unfortunate circumstances had created with flooding and COVID. We are starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel in our general fund account.
I will be bringing a few options to our board of education for them to look through and ultimately decide what we want to do moving forward. Unfortunately, I do not think any of them will involve a decrease in taxes for next year but I also do not foresee much of an increase coming. We have had some issues with our infrastructure over the last couple years and our building fund is getting depleted. We are going to have to address those issues and also work on getting that fund in better shape so we can weather the storms and repair/replace things as needed.
One part of our strategic plan is to put in place a facilities plan. This should help us replace and upgrade infrastructure and facilities prior to having things break down. We will also have things that break down during the school year, the idea is to eliminate as many of those unknowns prior to this happening.
On the bright side, it will be worth your time to drive by the north side of the grade school. Our new windows are going in and the siding around them really spruces up the looks of the building. Town and Country Construction is doing a great job for us and we are looking forward to seeing the finished product soon.