Prairie Rose Public Schools directors’ reports indicates stability

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Prairie Rose Public Schools continues to look toward the future of both their students and their staff in the January Board Meeting.

The meeting opened with a presentation from IF Cox School, highlighting different strategies being used in the classrooms to teach literacy, character education and social emotional learning, and respect for one another and the earth. This included insight into techniques such as Heggerty Phonemic Awareness. 

“The research-based initiatives you have rolled out in your building and showing us some really clear evidence for the change in the results with that group of students are remarkable. I mean, really that growth is, it’s really something to be proud of. So I just wanted to give you my commendation for that work,” said Superintendent Reagan Weeks following the presentation.

A total of $592,838 was spent on Infrastructure Maintenance and Renewal (IMR) projects in the 2021-2022, said Director of Maintenance Operations Darrell Drefs during the Maintenance Accountability Report. He noted that the actual financials for the year were higher than expected, likely partially due to flow meters needing to be installed in the water mains to fulfill a new insurance requirement.

Director of Student Services Camille Quinton brought forward the Inclusive Education Accountability Report. The division received an additional $300,000 in funding last year for services and student support for a total of $4,483,013. The total spent amounted to $5,036,985. 

“Compared to last year’s budget, we did see an increase in revenues of just over $300,000. So the amount that we needed to take out of the general instructional budget for the current school year is about $200,000, less than what we took out last year. So again, we are overspending in this area from what was what we get in regards to funding from the government. But that funding did increase somewhat this year,” said Quinton.

Assistant Secretary Treasurer Candice Hintz provided a financial update to the board, which as of November 2021 was 25% through their current fiscal year. She reported no significant changes to revenues compared to the previous approved budget. 

Overall, the 2021-2022 school year deficit is expected to come in at $595,195, with overall revenues of $51,511,580 for the year and expected expenses of $52,141,775. 

“We’re going to continue to monitor the financial effects of COVID, changes that may be coming up, we’ll watch sub costs,” said Hintz. “Right now, sub costs look to be fairly consistent with what we budgeted. But we’ll continue to monitor that to see if there’s any changes as we go through this COVID wave here. We’ll also monitor if there’s any additional purchases regarding PPE or supplies or any increases in sanitizing or cleaning costs as we go through this. And will also watch for potential further cost savings, such as travel meetings, transportation, we’ll continue to monitor those, see where they are compared to budget as we go through this.”

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