At last night’s Centennial School Board Meeting, Superintendent Paul Coakley, Ed.D, announced that the 2 percent budget shortfall projected for the 2018 – 19 school year has been reduced to approximately 1 percent. He shared that the ending fund balance for this past school year was higher than originally estimated, allowing the district to add back four FTE certified (teaching) positions, including a counselor position at Centennial Middle School.

In addition, employee groups that had agreed to take furlough days will now have at least one day reinstated.

A projected $1.2 million budget shortfall in June would have translated to reducing personnel costs by approximately 2 percent across all employee groups. This resulted in teaching and staff positions cuts, four and one-half furlough days for administrators and two furlough days for other non-certified staff.

"The good news is we are able to add back the middle school counselor position, along with three other certified positions,” said Coakley.  He added, “We are glad that we can eliminate at least one of the furlough days."

The Centennial School District Board of Directors will meet on August 1, 2018 at 7:00 p.m. in the district office board room. Along with various confirmation items that will be considered en masse, the Board will consider item 6.6.3 Meal Price Increase for 2018/2019.

The complete board packet for this meeting is available on the Centennial School District web site (www.csd28j.org) under the "School Board" tab.