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Board members for Muncie Community Schools are getting closer to finalizing the district’s 2019 budget. And as IPR’s Zoe Dwiggins reports, the new board on Tuesday discussed something previous boards couldn’t – what to do with extra money.
Muncie Community Schools came to state lawmakers’ attention in the past few years for a multi-million dollar budget deficit. After years of some kind of state oversight, recently appointed board members approved “additional appropriations” on Tuesday night.
As Chief Financial Officer Bob Coddington explained, that means money not spent last year.
“We ended up with $4,499,000 dollars that they took away from our 2018 appropriation with the assumption that we’d already spent it in 2017, when in fact we did not. So that’s one of the reasons we have an appropriation of $28 million. So we’re asking the public now to understand this is no more expenditures.”
Read More: Muncie Schools CFO To New Board: “It’s A Solvent Company”
A motion approving the additional appropriations needed to be approved in order for the extra money to be spent. The board did so, but did not finalize how the money is going to be spent.
As part of the approved General Assembly bill that partners MCS with Ball State University, Muncie received a state loan to pay back a misused $10 million bond. The district is still making a plan to pay that loan back.
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