BY WIL CREWS
SPORTSCREWS@OPELIKAOBSERVER.COM
LEE COUNTY —
The Lee County Schools Board of Education met for its regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday night and received a positive financial report from Chief Financial Officer Dr. Ken Roberts regarding March 2022, which marks the mid-way point in the fiscal year.
“March is the 50% point in the fiscal year so that gives us a fairly easy metric to look at and compare to,” Roberts said. “We are running ahead of projections.”
The report from Roberts revealed budgeted revenues at the mid-way point of the fiscal year were at 55.8%, while budgeted expenditures were at 48.5%.
“So we are obviously executing some cost constraints, staying under budget,” Roberts said.
Comparing numbers to last year, revenue is at 105.6%, while expenditures are at 104.5%, with a surplus of 800,000.
“That again, you can see local revenues … that is the primary contributor to that,” Roberts said. “Of course you remember this year we had a cost of living raise of about 2%, total compensation is up 3%. Most of that was state-funded compensation increases, only about 1% of that represents increases of non-personnel. That again supports that cost constraint because we know things are costing a lot more.”
Roberts attributed much of the increased revenue to increased total local revenue, which is up a total of 6% thanks in part to booming economic activity in Auburn. Lee County gets 40% of the total local revenue from the cities of Auburn and Opelika.
“That [surplus] is very significant” Roberts said.
IN OTHER BUSINESS,
THE BOARD:
– Approved out of state/overnight field trips for multiple schools
– Approved the awarding of a bid from Knox Pest Control in the amount of $22,560
– Approved the awarding of a bid to Dixie Electric for an HVAC System for Beulah High School Gymnasium in the amount of $656,854
– Adjourned for an executive session
– Approved human resource recommendations
– Approved a recommendation for a student expulsion case.