The Oxford Schools Board of Education unanimously approved a motion to create a “Public Improvement Fund” within the district’s budget.
According to Assistant Superintendent Ron Franey, the account would be used to build up funds towards future capitol item expenditures instead of waiting for the “big ticket” item to hit and pulling from fund balance monies.
“We’ve mentioned needing one before, but didn’t focus on it because we’ve had the two bond issues recently, so we’ve been putting our large capitol improvements into those,” explained Superintendent Ron Franey, “but the last one is ending and we need to prepare for any surprises left from those and for when items not addressed in those begin needing repaired.”
Some examples of large capitol improvements would be buses, which can not be purchased with bond monies; maintenance trucks; maintenance equipment; sidewalks or roofing.
“We have a much bigger property now to maintain than before and we’re trying to plan for these items in the future,” said Franey.
He added that one of the first items being considered are new buses.
Even though the district replaces older buses each year, additional ones will be needed in the near future.
“We are looking at the transportation deparment at the moment,” he said. “I can’t say for certain that will be the first to come up though.”
The school board approved transfering $600,000 from the general fund into the interest-earning account.
The board will be responsible for deciding how much to place into the fund when considering each year’s fiscal budget.