By Larissa Lytwyn

In his January 20 presentation to the school board, Business Director Ronald Bienkowski described the Board of Education’s preliminary budget report, chronicling finances from the beginning of the school year until December 31, 2003, as generally “pretty good.”

To date, the school board has spent $21,462,063.89 of its $49,707,147 budget.

The school board unanimously approved several recommended transfers that will continue to balance the board’s budget, including $115,821 in transportation services, $17,691 in provisions for teacher and specialists’ salary adjustments, and $79,000 in medical and dental insurance pensions.

Mr Bienkowski outlined the reason for each transfer.

A transfer toward salary adjustments, he explained, was necessary to provide “additional funds for districtwide legal services.”

The more than $100,000 transfer toward transportation services was needed to counteract the unexpected addition of several buses, among other changes, to streamline the district’s new three-from-four-tier system.

The pension transfer was related to increased participation and “buybacks” related to recent teachers’ union negotiations.