Cliff Buchan
News Editor

A replacement on the ISD 831 Board of Education for Keith Dunham likely wonít be named until late July or early August.

Meeting in regular session on Thursday, June 1, the school board agreed to follow a policy now in place that calls for three weeks of accepting applications followed by face-to-face interviews with the board. Dunham resigned from the board on June 1 due to a family relocation to the Chicago area.

The three-week application period will continue until Friday, June 29. Once the list is compiled, each of the six members of the school board can select one candidate for the board interview process.

With the school board changing its regular meeting date to Thursday, June 29 from Thursday, July 6 because of the Fourth of July holiday, it is not certain when the interview session will take place.

The board could set a special meeting date for interviews during its regular business session on June 29. The board may elect to name the new board member at the time of the special meeting.

Dunham announced his resignation two weeks ago. His seat on the school board is not up for election until November 2007.

Residents can apply at the District Office Building, 6100 N. 210th St.

Budget set

The school board last week voted 4-2 to adopt the budget for the 2006-2007 year that begins on July 1. By law, the budget must be approved prior to July 1st.

The new budget calls for total spending in all school funds of $75,046,218 compared to total revenues of $74,778,058. Reserve funds will be used to account for the difference.

The general fund will command $63,485,300 in total spending. That compares against general fund total revenue of an equal amount.

Larry Martini, director of business affairs, reported June 1 the district expects to show an ending unreserved general fund balance of $1.7 million on June 30.

In the 4-2 vote to approve the budget, members Eric Langness and David Gay were opposed.

While Gay did not explain his reasoning, Langness said he was opposed to the budget containing percentage increases for labor groups.

ìIt tells these people what to ask for (during negotiations),î Langness said. ìThey should be zeroed out.î

Martini said it is common practice for most districts to build forward thinking budgets that set forth a road map for how district dollars are spent.

President Bill Bresin, who joined with members Rob Rapheal, Joe Grafft and Julie Corcoran in approving the budget, said it would not be correct to build reserve funds that are falsely inflated only to spend them down later.

Because of the uncertainty of state funding in the months to come, Martini said budget numbers likely would be required by the board in November and in March of 2007.

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