Darkness falls over BV’s finances

After the meeting was called to order, a near two-hour closed session took place, which forced a large number of students, staff and community members to wait in the lobby of the district office. During this time, lights continuously flickered on and off, which eventually activated the building’s emergency backup lights.

When open session of the meeting reconvened, the board room was lit by only two backup lights, which left some board members and the audience relying on the light of their cellphones to read their agendas.

The dark environment set the mood as Superintendent Dennis Thompson discussed the district’s rapid, dwindling finances.

“It’s a reality when we started this school year, and it’s the reality when we close this school year,” he said.

He provided a brief recap about where the district stood financially and reminded the public of the board’s decision to sell nearly $3 million worth of bonds in the fall.

“That mostly was to keep us running,” he said. “The expectation is and was to have that money last for at least three years, and the question that the board has asked me periodically is, ‘Are we going to make it … the next three years?’”

The district was forced to add $1.5 million of the bond money to this year’s budget — $1.25 million, alone, made up the district’s education fund. Thompson confirmed the budget’s expenditures were on track half-way through the fiscal year, showing expenses at 49 percent.

“If the education fund is at 49 percent in the middle of the year, it should be at 95.6 percent of expenditures by the end of the year, which will mean we will already have burned through a good chunk of that (bond) money,” he said. “You cannot divide … three by three and get something more than a million dollars a year.”

Based on Thompson projections, if Bureau Valley continues spending at the pace they have been, the bond money will be drained before the end of three years.