Timothy L. Johnson Academy’s school leader gave board members a positive budget forecast for the charter school Monday.
The local charter school will have about $2.5 million to spend in its 2012-13 general fund budget, slightly less than the $2.6 million it had to spend during the last school year, according to school leader Steve Bollier. He estimated the school would have $158,638 left in the general fund at the end of the 2012-13 year.
“The budget is very strong,” he said.
Bollier said he built the budget with the assumption the school would attract 300 students in the fall. He called that number a conservative estimate, and said it’s likely the school could have as many as 350 students enroll.
Indiana public schools receive state funding based mainly on their number of students. Last school year, the school had about 307 students in kindergarten through eighth grade.
Bollier said the board is finalizing plans to relocate all of the school’s students to Village Elementary starting at the beginning of this school year.
East Allen County Schools board members closed the southeast-side elementary school effective last fall as part of the district’s redesign plan.
The district has put a new alternative education program in the building, but it still has extra space.
According to the deal being finalized between the charter school and EACS, Timothy L. Johnson will be able to rent space in the building, and will have the first option to buy the school if the district chooses to sell it.
Board members at Timothy L. Johnson Academy have been looking for a new location for this fall amid concerns that one of their two leases will not be renewed this summer.
Currently, elementary students at Timothy L. Johnson attend school at Come as You Are Community Church on South Anthony Boulevard, and the school’s middle school students attend classes at the former St. John Lutheran School on West Washington Boulevard downtown.
The board originally intended to rent or purchase the former Pleasant Center Elementary in Fort Wayne Community Schools, but FWCS voted to give the property to the Fort Wayne-Allen County Airport Authority.
Lawsuits filed in Allen Superior Court have stalled the process.
