“We were very grateful to be able to help in that setting,” said Snowflake Unified School District Governing Board President Cory Johnson June 23 regarding helping the 39 evacuees of the Cedar Fire who came to the Snowflake shelter as a precaution.
“Thank you to all employees who went above and beyond helping with the Red Cross shelter,” said District Superintendent Hollis Merrell. He noted that there were many volunteers, and several were trained by the Red Cross in order to help.
Our Lady of the Snow Catholic Church has been Red Cross certified and offered its facility, Merrell said.
“We had offered another school site,” said Merrell, but Navajo County Emergency Management Director Mary Springer made the decision to move the shelter to Holbrook. Merrell noted that there were two evacuees in the shelter when it was moved to Holbrook.
“They (Red Cross) were extremely complimentary to the staff and volunteers,” said the superintendent.
In other business, a public hearing on the fiscal year 2016 budget was held to present expenditure budget revision 3 to the public.
Business Manager Mark Ollerton explained that the district received an additional $307,000 from the state due to increased enrollment.
“We are revising the budget upward to capture that,” explained Ollerton.
During the regular meeting, the board unanimously approved the budget revision as presented in the hearing.
The board also approved the proposed 2016-17 budget. Budget limits are $13,041,167 for maintenance and operations, $1,555,878 for classroom site and $981,509 for unrestricted capital outlay.
The proposed budget will be on the district website so the public can access it, and it will be published in the newspaper. There will also be a truth in taxation hearing as a result of the adjacent ways tax.
“It was a great audit and a successful one,” Ollerton advised the board, noting that they have received an award for financial record keeping for several years. “We take audits very seriously.” He noted that when auditors come to the district, it is an education for staff. The auditor is part of the team, and is willing to answer questions and help staff out.
The governing board approved the 2015 annual audit.
