The Columbia School Board met Thursday to discuss a number of matters, approving a tentative budget for the school year as well as moving forward on projects at Columbia High School which have been discussed for several months.

Regarding the district’s 2023-24 budget, some of the larger expenditure items include the Educational Fund at $17,270,871, Capital Projects at $3,031,838 and Operations and Maintenance at $2,867,660.

Each of these funds anticipate a deficit of $207,573, $2,321,838 and $124,317, respectively.

However, the district’s operating funds are expected to be in the black by the end of the school year with an anticipated surplus of $61,563.

Columbia Superintendent of Schools Chris Grode spoke about the budget following the meeting, noting that construction and bonding are going to be the biggest areas of potential change.

“Sometimes a school budget is more art than science,” Grode said. “You’ve got your revenues coming in, you’ve got grants, you’ve got rollover money from previous fiscal years. You get into the ballpark.”

Grode noted this year’s negotiations were quite positive for the district with a deficit of just over $200,000.

He also spoke to general concerns about budget deficits, saying the district tries to keep things balanced and hold the tax rates down.

“We’re not a for-profit, so we try to keep the tax rates where they need to be, and we try to not build up our fund balances, but yet we need to keep in mind that the state doesn’t always pay their bills, so having excess funds there is a necessity as well,” Grode said. “Being in the red is always the bad moment, but if you do three years in the black, you should do three years in the red and try to balance that out. I guess you don’t try to be in the red, but you try to hit that zero enough that you’re gonna miss on the right side and you’re gonna miss on the left side.”

While the budget was just one of the approved action items, the board also heard an overview of the district’s recent audit from Jim Schmersahl of Schorb & Schmersahl.

Schmersahl spoke quite positively of the board’s financial activity over the last year, pointing to good investments, debt position and bonds while also noting the administration’s willingness to assist with the auditing process.

He also described the district’s overall financial position.

“This year’s bottom line was some $340,000-$350,000 to the good,” Schmersahl said. “That contrasts last year’s $2.8 million to the good, and some of the big picture reasons for that is a significant decrease in federal funds this year, some $700,000-$800,000 decrease in federal moneys which is representative of the COVID environment we just came out of.”

Along with the budget approval, several action items revolved around projects at CHS, the first of which was approval of the parking lot expansion into Bolm-Schuhkraft City Park also involving the City of Columbia.

Board member Adam Hemken, who has been intimately involved in with recent construction projects along with Columbia School Board President Greg Meyer, spoke briefly about the project.

He noted the walking path in the park should only be affected during the construction process but will largely be ultimately unchanged.

Additionally, Hemken said the high school is expected to lose roughly 100 parking lots during construction, though the project will ultimately see over 100 spots added along with handicap parking and sidewalks.

Grode also spoke about the project, focusing on the relationship between the school district and city.

“Our parking project seems to be going well with the city,” Grode said. “The relationship with the city is a great thing, too… When the taxing bodies can leverage, work together, it really is great for the community and for the taxpayers, and that’s really our goal is to provide the best benefit. The education’s taken care of, but we want to take care of the financial side as well.”

The board also approved contracts with FGM Architects and Poettker Construction for the CHS renovation project.

Meyer and Hemken described how tedious the finalizing of both contracts was, with Meyer remarking on a discussion which began Friday afternoon only to continue late into the evening.

“We’re not an easy crowd,” Meyer said. “We were very particular on what was in the contract, what the language was, what we would agree to, what we wouldn’t agree to, deal breakers, that sort of thing. We were here until 7:30 on Friday.”

Other action items on the agenda included the approval of a Saint Louis University Madrid Trip which last took place back in 2007.

Also approved was the sale of various commercial-grade cafeteria equipment, an administrator and teacher salary and benefits report and school improvement plans for the 2023-24 school year.

The first action item, approval of the 2023 annual financial report, was tabled for next meeting as it had just been presented to the board earlier that day, with Meyer quipping: “We’re not Congress. We’re gonna read stuff before we pass it.”

Following a comment toward the end of the meeting from Grode expressing his satisfaction that the contract stage of the construction project was over, the board moved to executive session, which lasted for nearly three hours.

When the closed session concluded, the board approved negotiations for a settlement with Midwest Tractor Sales regarding procurement of equipment amounting to $25,500.

The motion was approved by all board members save for Vice President Lisa Schumacher.

Though he could not offer further details as the action was the result of executive session discussion, Grode confirmed after the meeting the item did relate to a controversy previously discussed last month in which administration purchased two lawn mowers without going through the necessary bidding process as is needed for purchases exceeding $25,000.

Another action item after executive session concerned student discipline. The board approved a motion acknowledging that an unnamed student violated the athletic code and excluded the student from participating in school sports for the remainder of the academic year.

As the item was the result of executive session discussion and involved student disciplinary action, Grode said he was unable to speak further about it.