By: Jeremy Handel, Staff Writer
jeremy@thewoodrufftimes.com
Woodruff School District staff presented the preliminary budget proposal to the Board of Trustees at the June meeting, showing a budget of nearly $43 million.
Assistant Superintendent of Business and Finance Chris Benfield presented the budget, which is a nearly $5 million increase over the current year, or 13.1 percent.
According to Benfield, the increase is primarily due to higher pay and benefits for all employees, including a 3 percent across-the-board pay increase. Overall, salary and benefits increase the total by approximately $6 million.
Benfield indicated that reductions in other areas helped lighten the impact of that increase.
He also presented the budget for R.D. Anderson, which is up 6 percent, mostly due to increases in salary and benefits. The McCarthy Tesler budget was not yet ready and will be presented at the district’s budget meeting on June 25. The board will hear the second and final reading of the budget at that budget meeting.
In other business, the board approved the use of a secured grant for nearly $225,000 for the purchase and installation of new security cameras on the district’s school buses. District Superintendent Dr. Aaron Fulmer said the total cost of nearly $225,000 will be completely covered by a South Carolina school safety grant. Dr. Fulmer credited Russell Mahaffey, director of personnel and student services, and Bobby Turner, director of safety and emergency services, for securing the grant.
The funds will cover new security cameras for the yellow buses that take kids to and from school, but not for the activity buses. When asked about the activity buses, Dr. Fulmer said the district is open to adding cameras to them as well, if funds are available.
Dr. Fulmer also took time during the meeting to recognize three longtime employees who retired at the end of the school year. Betsy Alexander taught for more than 28 years in the district; Marie Davis spent 34 years in education, 29 at District Four; and Toni Sloan taught for 50 years in Woodruff.
The board also approved the officers for several booster clubs and parent-teacher organizations across the district.
The school board meets on the first Monday of each month at 6 p.m. The next meeting will be a specially held budget meeting on Thursday, June 25, at 6 p.m. at the new high school. The district does not hold a July meeting.
