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Tea Area School District board approves budget measures, raises lunch prices and authorizes surplus buses
Summary
The board authorized year‑end budget supplements, approved a FY27 budget hearing with no substantive changes, approved surplus sale of two 2012 buses at $2,500 each, endorsed a small lunch-price increase and higher substitute pay, and approved program and safety plans and personnel actions.
The Tea Area School District 41-5 Board of Education approved a bundle of fiscal and administrative items at its annual organizational meeting, including authorization for budget supplements, the surplus and sale of two older buses, modest increases to meal-related charges and higher substitute-teacher pay.
Business manager (speaker 6) told the board the district is closing out fiscal year 2026 and requested authorization to move funds between functions so every fund shows a positive balance; the board approved the authorization. The business manager said the district will sell two 2012 Bluebird 77‑passenger buses rather than trade them and reported a sale price of $2,500 each; the board approved declaring the buses surplus and selling them.
The business manager proposed a small price increase for school meals — generally 10¢ across the board for lunches, with extra milk and some a la carte items also rising — citing a federal paid-lunch-equity tool. On unpaid lunch balances the business manager said, “When I last checked it, which was probably April, it was around 40,000,” and the board discussed options including targeted match programs, donations, or more aggressive collection efforts while noting the cost and equity trade-offs.
The board voted to approve the FY27 mill rate as presented and adopted admission and activity prices with one change: the spring musical admission will be $10 for adults and $6 for students (preschool free). The board confirmed the meeting per-meeting salary at $60 and approved raising substitute teacher pay to $170 per day (and $190 per day for long-term assignments) to maintain a 95% substitute fill rate.
Other approvals included the consolidated application for federal programs (Title I $87,903; Title II $66,842; Title IV $10,300 — all decreases from the prior year), the annual special education comprehensive plan, the internal school safety plan, and a Head Start lease renewal that increases annual rent 1.4% to $9,136. The board also accepted personnel resignations and approved a slate of new hires including certified and support staff.
All votes referenced in the meeting were taken by voice vote with no roll-call tallies recorded in the transcript.
