Greetings from Fulda District #505,
I hope that all of you had a great Thanksgiving day and weekend. The weather just doesn’t seem to snap and give us a really warm streak but thank God we got most if not all the crops out. A few farmers in the area were hoping for a few more cornstalk bales but hopefully a dry winter can make up for needing a few less bales.
*A couple weeks ago we heard a report from our auditor and the financial state of our district. Our fund balance dropped around $75,000 and left us to begin July 1st with around $550,000. Bad news is that we should have around 3X that amount in reserves in order to weather the whims of the legislature as well as take care of big projects that may present itself. The good news is that we had a much lower fund balance few years ago when we let one of the levies expire and chewed up fund balance. It lowered our taxes for a few years but put us in a pinch. About 3 years ago, you, the patrons passed a higher levy to get us back on track. It raised taxes but it is putting us back on track.
*It is a high levy BUT don’t ever forget Fulda does not and will not ever have a building bond! Most of our neighbors are paying taxes on a building project and 4 nearby districts are proposing building projects that would be a big increase on taxes and make our level look much better.
*It’s great seeing increased enrollments in the elementary! I’m glad I wasn’t here during the spooky times of classes in the high teens / low twenties. We now have 3 classes that hover right around 30! It’s a good problem to have the need to actually hire a teacher or two for after Christmas. We are committed to keeping our class sizes at a reasonable level for the kids and teachers. I have told a few folks in the last couple weeks that we are ready for another 100 kids in the district and let’s hope we keep them coming!
*Thank you directors and students for sharing your talents, time and enthusiasm with our recent musical. What a great opportunity for students in a small school to be involved. Our sports are off and running with GBB games happening this week and the boys will wrestle and dribble/shoot in the next couple weeks. I took a moment and I hope many of you do as well to take the time to thank and congratulate our athletes for stepping up and being a part of the team and making our district proud. The problem with participation numbers is creeping into most districts. Even though there are no cows to milk or manure to pitch or calves to feed like I did, there seems to be many excuses why kids can’t be a part of a team lately. Let’s get our youngsters excited about being a part of a team and playing for school pride. Good luck Raiders and Coyotes!
*Hopefully we have our buildings ready for the winter and we are already looking at little things we can do next spring and summer to get the facilities even better! I LOVE the look of the elementary from the east and hope to clean the stone and brick next summer. Our secondary building has such a nice presence and the land around it couldn’t have been laid out any better. Hats off to our elders for the fine work they did planning for the future many, many years ago. Fulda is a great place to live and work and raise a family and I’m thankful to be a part of it. Have a great week and get out and watch the kids participate!
