At their final meeting of the 2023/2024 school year, the Gilpin County RE-1 Board of Education on June 4, 2024, voted to close the books on the 2023/2024 school year and open the books for the 2024/2025 school year.
The Board held a public forum on the proposed 2024/2025 adopted budget to explain it to the board members and the public. Business Analyst Joe Tinucci was on hand to answer any questions from the Board or the public regarding both budgets.
Board member Joe Marr questioned the spreadsheet in the agenda packet titled “23-24 Budget Comparisons.” Tinucci explained that the June Budget column was the originally adopted budget that was developed last year for the current school year. The Working Budget column shows the numbers at the end of December. The Supplemental Budget column shows the budget at the end of the school year. It is considered the final budget, including both revenue and expenses for the 2023/2024 school year.
There were three examples of changes from the June Budget to the Supplemental Budget: Current Property Tax and Black Hawk Educational Enhancement Tax.
The Property Tax line item was set at $2,600,973.28 in the June Budget and revised to $2,917,054.20 in the year-end Supplemental Budget.
The State Equalization line item decreased from $2,376,366 in the June Budget to $2,125,385.82 in the Supplemental Budget. Tinucci explained that the fund decreased because of a decreased enrollment over time.
The Black Hawk Education Enhancement Tax was set at $1,701,783.34 in the June Budget and $1,739,099.60 in the Supplemental Budget.
Board Chair Sarah Swanson asked Tinucci about the Tuition/Preschool revenue line item. Superintendent David MacKenzie responded that the school is now getting universal pre-kindergarten money for four-year-olds, which supplements tuition programs for the parents. The revenue tripled from $65,000 in the June Budget to $193,756 in the Supplemental Budget.
After a short break following a work session, the Board reconvened for their regular board meeting.
MacKenzie gave an update on the end-of-school-year activities and celebrations that had taken place in the last two weeks, including the recognition of the seniors and the scholarships awarded. He gave a special mention to the tireless activities of the Booster Club, which helped put on all the special events. He said that they do a great job in supporting the students.
MacKenzie’s Superintendent Report focused on the two active capital improvement projects. The final phase of providing ADA access throughout the school will begin June 10, 2024. It is scheduled to be finished before the next school year begins.
MacKenzie gave a recap of the informational meeting on the Gilpin School District Wastewater Interconnect project, as well as a status update. ESCO has not set a specific date for the start of the project, but is anticipating it to be sometime toward the end of June.
The major new business before the board was approving the 2023/2024 Supplemental and the 2024/2025 Adopted budgets. The Board unanimously approved all the budget proposals. On a second reading, the Board also unanimously approved the supporting budgets for Appropriations, Fund Balance/ Reserves, Food Service Fund, Capital Projects Fund, and the Pupil Activity Agency Fund.
Swanson announced that the adopted budget for the 2024/2025 school year would be around $8.4 million.
In other business, the Board unanimously approved a two-year contract worth $192,000 with Bobby Jones ,and discussed accounting changes in the Pupil Activity Fund. MacKenzie reported that they have upgraded the payment system for referees and officials, and they are looking at some old account balances to bring them current.
The final action by the Board was to set the next meeting in August.
The next Board meeting will be a Meet and Confer Study and Dialogue Work Session on August 6. This meeting with staff and educators will focus on health insurance and the benefits package.
The agenda and documents for this meeting are on the RE-1 website (gilpin.k12.co.us) under Board of Education Agendas. Click on the June 4, 2024, date. There is a video of both June 4 meetings on the RE-1 YouTube channel. Specific documents in the June 4 document package to look at include the 23-24 budget comparison report (June 24-25 Budget v1), the Bobby Jones contract (Bobby Jones Speaks Consult_ 5.7.24.pdf), and the Pupil Activity Fund Balance report (Pupil Activity Fund Cash Balance.pdf)..
