By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com

With finances always in motion Wynford Treasurer Leesa Smith gave her updated five-year forecast to the Board of Education Thursday night.

During her presentation of the forecast Smith painted a largely positive outlook for the school district with rises in open enrollment revenue, as well as increases in property taxes, state foundation funding, and increases in biennium budget funding.

“We are expecting to have a net income increase of $95,000 in open enrollment ultimately because we accepted more students in as to students open enrolling out,” Smith said.

Smith also pointed out the school saving funds with resignation of a few staff members.

“Personnel services have had a lot of activity since March,” Smith said. “We had a resignation of a teacher of 29 years plus the hiring of a new teacher to fill that position will save us about $20,000 annually. We have two aides retiring, which will create $27,000 in future savings. We also have the resignation of a special education teacher, bus driver, and custodian which we don’t plan on replacing. This will save us $53,000 annually.”

While the school is saving in numerous areas, Smith did highlight a few services that are on the rise.

“In early May I received a statement without an invoice from Sodexo,” Smith said. “I was hoping sticking with $110,000 was going to be conservative, but I think the transfer is going to be $130,000 which I feel is too high even at $110,000.”

“We are still looking at a positive overall bottom line,” Smith continued. “However in 2018 we start to see expenses over revenue. This can change however with levy renewals, the expected tax increase, an increase in state funding, and higher pre-school enrollment.”

In his report to the board High School Principal Jeff Holbrook presented the 2016 graduation itinerary for Saturday. Holbrook noted that with bringing in extra seating the ceremony should have a capacity of 2,000 people.

Junior High Principal Chris Solis presented an update for the Washington D.C. trip. Solis explained that he chose Nowak Tours with the trip taking place May 3-6 in 2017. Solis noted that parents of students are encouraged to go on the trip with the goal of 40 parents to be included. Solis reported that the cost will be $349 per student, but with parents and staff going it could drop to as low as $345 per student. The cost for parents wishing to go on the trip would be $466.

Youth minister at Bucyrus Church of the Nazarene Jon Noggle asked during the public participation portion of the meeting that Wynford set up a boundary in which no extracurricular activities take place on Sundays. Noggle noted that with the increase of activities on Sundays students have been choosing the district’s extracurricular activities over church activities fearing that they will lose a spot on their teams or clubs.

Noggle also explained that whether people are a believer or not, everyone should have at least one day of rest.

The Wynford Board of Education approved all items on the agenda without a dissenting vote.