Financial Decisions Dominate June BOE

The running theme for the Board of Education’s June meeting brought financial decisions to the forefront as they prepare for their next fiscal year.

One of the major decisions came with awarding two of four bids for Fuel/Oil Products. Awarding Fuel Supply to Petroleum Traders, the BOE’s set price for the year will be $0.0278 over rack price for Unleaded and $0.0329 over rack price for Diesel. The second award went to Appalachian Propane at $0.848 per gallon of Propane Fuel.

The one bid received for Automotive Batteries from O’Reillys was declined with a comment that these will be purchased as needed for the year. Towing Services for the schools will also be called on as needed as that received no bids.

Right after awarding the bids, the Board discussed a proposal for school lunch prices increases. According to the proposal, the USDA is requiring school’s charging less than $2.86 to recalculate their prices. This will put the Primary, Elementary, and Middle Schools on a 10 cent increase to total $2.10 per meal. The High School will see a 25 cent increase to total $2.25. The Boards approval also set the reduced meal price at $0.40.

Along with the 2010 ESPLOST, 2015 ESPLOST, and Financial Reports, the Board received a report on recent Expenditures and Board Approved Purchases including the changes coming to the School Resource Officers after the recent changes to the budget when the Board agreed to a request from the Board of Commissioners to increase their funding of the Officers.

The changes to the budget, having gone through one meeting in March and another in June, were adopted at the June Regular Session to prepare for July as the beginning of FY 18. The budgets details can also be found in FYN’s recent article: “Gilmer Schools Adopts Budget”

Also in preparation for FY 18, the Board made final approval for a new Pre-k and State Salary Schedule.