It's crunch time for school budget

Chuck Kajer, Managing Editor

It's crunch time for school administrators in the New Prague Area Schools, as they are going over budget numbers and fine tuning them in order to get their finances squared away for the 2007-08 school year.

Superintendent Jim Rouse went over preliminary budget figures with the New Prague Area School Board at its April 12 meeting, and he and Dan Pyan, the district's new Finance Director, are poring over the numbers that will be presented to the board at its May 7 meeting.

Pyan, who had been finance director and athletic director in Stewartville, began his duties with the district on April 16. He replaces Rod Zivkovich, who took a position with the Bloomington school district.

There should be no surprises in the coming year's $29 million budget, Rouse said. The budget will represent a 1.3 percent increase from 2006-07, and the one area that concerns administrators - and the board - most is the spend-down of the district's reserve funds.

Several years ago, the district began stockpiling reserves, with the intent to use them to pay for the opening of new buildings in 2006-07.

We spent the fund balance down