Monmouth-Roseville Superintendent Ed Fletcher and the school board went over the new budget at a meeting on Tuesday night. Fletcher estimates the school district will receive an additional $890,000 based on an evidence-based funding model. The formula uses certain variables to determine the level of adequacy a school district falls under. This will be the first year since Fletcher’s arrival at Monmouth-Roseville in 2012 that the district will have a balanced budget.
“I think that when we start planning, and start looking at the needs of our students, needs of our staff – we can start putting real plans in place. And then putting a dollar amount to it, and saying ‘let’s try it’ as opposed to ‘sorry guys, it’s not going to happen. We’re going to do the basics. We’re going to buy books, buy cirriculum materials, but we’re not doing anything in addition to that.’ It does feel good,” Fletcher stated.
Fletcher wants to make sure that the district assesses every possible financial step moving forward to make sure the money is being maximized. The district is behind 4.8 million dollars due to being inadequately funded by the state for the last eight years, so Fletcher knows it will be a process to make things right.
“The devastation of proration was there for many, many years. We’re certainly not going to crawl out of it in one year, but we’re going to start inching our way up towards crawling our way out of that hole,” he said.
written by Jackson Kane
To hear more of Superintendent Fletcher’s interview, click on the podcast link below:
