The Stanley-Boyd School District will soon face a choice to either build or buy a facility somewhere for its Open Doors Academy. The alternative school run by the district and meant for those students who might not succeed in another setting has reportedly had widely fluctuating enrollment, with up to 18 students when neighboring districts are included. Superintendent Jeff Koenig updated the board on its options at the August school board meeting.

“I know Wyann (owner Wyann Hoage) has said before that she would be willing to sell us the current facility,” he said of the old Carquest building that the district currently rents for $1,000 a month at 517 North Broadway Street. “We have a lot of land around here we could build on too,” Koenig said of the alternative to purchase. In terms of buying rather than building, the district has been approached on four to five other locations by those who know the district is looking, the superintendent told board members.

“I think you should get prices for both,” said one board member of the buy vs. build decision facing the district. “We can’t decide without information.”

Also touched on during the budget update was that parking lot repairs of cracked pavement were largely finished at Boyd Elementary with only minor details left, and that $480,000 had been spent on roof repairs.

“You can tell where the roof was worked on,” Middle School Principal David Ludy said of the long-term capital improvement project. Slated for a later date were gym repairs in the elementary at Stanley, projected to cost between $95,000 and $200,000 depending on whether there is asbestos in the current floor. A review of the newspaper archive on Badger- Link suggests the present elementary space dates to late October 1990, when it was reported that a then middle school edition would be complete. Regarding the rest of the school budget at last month’s board meeting, the savings balances were as follows.

For the General Fund otherwise known as Fund 10, the Investment Pool balance stood at $1,120,484.55 as of June 30, 2020, while the district’s account at Forward Financial had $606,262.75 in it. Of two time deposits with Sterling Bank their first had a balance of $42,834.95 and the second had a balance of $247,817.23, with interest set at 2 percent for both Sterling accounts.

In terms of the Special Revenue Trust Fund otherwise known as Fund 21, the balance of the Forward Financial account for Legacy trees stood at $682.53 as of June 30 of this year with an interest rate of 0.4 percent, while the Oriole Park account at Forward stood at $295,354.53 with an interest rate of 1.55 percent.

For the Long Term Capital Improvement Fund (Fund 46) as of the end of June, the balance of the district’s Sterling Bank CD stood at $3,009,471.55 with an interest rate of two percent, while the Employee Benefit Trust or Fund 73 stood at a balance of $1,578,810.76. Of special note for Fund 73 was the news that expenditures over the 2019-2020 fiscal year more than tripled revenues, at $97,285 in costs to $28,784.90 in income respectively. Fund 73 is funded from the General Fund and has received no new money since the 2012-2013 school year. Koenig said that Fund 73 generates interest “and is mostly self-sustaining at this point.”

Shifting to Fund 21 classed as “Special Revenue,” $17,933.45 come in to just $73.90 in expenditures, with a total “committed” balance of $296,037.06 as of June 30, 2020.

The Special Education fund meanwhile, saw almost a million dollars more in expenditures at $1,604,905.09 with revenue of just $678,425.09, the balance being covered by a transfer of $926,480 from the General Fund. A total of $4,223 was transferred from the General Fund to Fund Service under Fund 50, while Fund 46 for Long Term Capital Improvements saw an income transfer of $1,875,000 come from the General Fund.

During the board presentation, Lance Carlson had a question on the roof repairs. “Can you explain what a ballasted roof is?” he asked. “It means it has rocks on it,” the reply came.

Photo by Joseph Back.