Wellsboro school board tackles $426,000 shortfall

WELLSBORO — With an estimated $426,000 shortfall between revenues and expenditures in the preliminary 2008 district budget, the Wellsboro Area School Board has three options.

That is what Marcia Newcomb, district business manager, told the board at a budget work session Thursday night.

The first option is no increase in real estate taxes, with the shortfall; the second, a 3 percent increase with an estimated $167,000 shortfall or a 5.8 percent increase, the maximum allowed by the state under its index, or a surplus of $43,000.

About $200,000 of that $426,000 is earmarked for capital projects, Newcomb told the board.

During Thursday’s meeting, a few board members discussed dipping into the district construction fund and fund balance to make up the difference in the shortfall. However, others questioned how, if the construction fund was depleted, the district would pay for continuing capital projects.

The board should hold another budget work session within the next month, board president Glenn Poirier said, but no date was set. The board’s next regular meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 8 at 7:30 p.m. in the large group instruction room at the high school.