By ARCHIE MOUNTAIN
NEW LONDON — The preliminary 2018-19 budget for the Kearsarge Regional School District is $42,749,601, an increase of $540,824 or 1.28 percent.
However, that number does not include potential pay increases for teachers or special articles for special education and maintenance, all of which are still under consideration.
Teacher contract negotiations that would cover the first year of a potential three-year contract are still in the discussion phase.
The proposed operating budget gained final approval at the last meeting of the school board.
With everything figured in, the 2017-18 school budget came in at $42.199.777 or an increase of 2.20 percent. The average operating budget changes from 2013-14 to 2018-19 has been 2.18 percent annually.
Broken down, the proposed 2018-19 budget contains $29,745,696 for wages and fringe expenses; other operating costs, $4,251,933; utilities, property insurance, bond, $2,934,075; transportation, $2,844,581; out of district SPED, $1,455,002; federal funds, $833,000; and food service, $676,316.
Areas that show increases for 2018-19 include wages, $473,258; other operating costs, $104,194; other benefits, $80,148; retirement, $57,984, and federal, $9,000.
Showing decreases are food service ($2,966); transportation costs ($14,919); out of district, SPED (tuition) ($34,999); health benefits ($59,629) and utilities. property insurance, bonds ($71,248).
The operating budget including general fund, food and federal in 2013-14 was $37,806,015. The biggest increases in the years after that were 3.07 percent in 2014-15 and 3.04 percent in 2016-17. The smallest increase was 2.20 percent in 2017-18.
The average increase from 2013-14 to 2018-19 was 2.18 percent.
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