The Sedalia School District 200 finished the past fiscal year with a better than expected budget surplus, but the district is anticipating another year where deficit spending could be necessary.

At Tuesday night’s meeting, the Board of Education adopted the final budget amendments for the 2024-25 school year, resulting in a total budget surplus of $4,540,515.42, with most of that reimbursements for capital projects covered by lease certificate funding. Supt. Dr Todd Fraley says the budget last year included a number of renovations to the district’s buildings.

Fraley said Sedalia Schools finished the year with a revenue balance of 44.77%, just over nine percentage points better than what he had budgeted at the beginning of the year. However, because of continued capital improvements and potential inflation, the district is budgeting a deficit spend of $14,220,885.54 for the new year. Fraley says he’s once again taking a conservative estimate on revenue, as schools around the state could see a projected revenue increase of nearly $400 per student not take effect, depending on how Governor Mike Kehoe acts on legislation.

Also at Tuesday night’s meeting, the Sedalia Board of Education approved a series of change orders with PCE Construction and McCollester Construction, and accepted the donation of a stainless steel sink for the foods classroom from Duke Manufacturing. The board also approved a project resolution as a condition to apply for a sidewalk grant from the Missouri Department of Transportation, and approved the list of surplus property for sale.

The Sedalia School Board next meets Monday, July 28.