Like many districts in the State of Illinois, Farmington School District 265 has adopted a negative budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
The 265 school board adopted a budget with an overall deficit of $617,871 on September 14th.
Working in the red doesn’t seem to be deterring the district however. Superintendent John Asplund says the school has enacted conservation projects, such as a solar energy project that runs one third of the schools electricity.
Asplund says that since that project was implemented last April, the district has saved roughly $33,000.
Farmington is now reportedly looking at changing the way it operates bus transportation.
Asplund tells Galesburg’s Morning News on WGIL, that they are considering bringing it in-house.
“Historically here, the district has always outsourced its transportation,” says Asplund. “As we’ve gone forward here, the real impedance that made us look at changing is because our transportation reimbursement from the state has dropped. In 2010, our reimbursement from the state was $1,038,000 and last year it was $550,00. That requires you to do some different things when you aren’t getting the revenue you used to get.”
The district is anticipating spending about $1.5 Million this year on transportation costs alone. Asplund says if a change is made, he believes a hefty savings would take place even in the first year. The district would initially lease busses instead of purchasing them.
