Wake Schools Fuel Budget Running on Fumes
The higher cost of fuel has run the Wake County schools' fuel budget millions of dollars short.
Posted — UpdatedSchool administrators said they couldn’t have predicted the increases at the pump. The higher cost has made their fuel budget millions of dollars short.
Don Haydon, the district's chief facilities and operations officer, said the rise in diesel fuel prices caught them by surprise.
Now, the bulk rate the school system pays is $2.73 a gallon. That’s a increase of 76 cents a gallon, and it adds up to a $2.2 million shortfall overall.
Another reason the fuel budget is off, according to Haydon, is because buses are running extra routes delivering students whose parents opted for traditional school calendars over year-round calendars.
School officials have asked the board to pull $2.2 million from the reserve fund.
"That fund balance, of course, is for the purpose of one-time expenses that are not anticipated," Tart said, noting several million dollars already been used from the fund for basic school operations because the county didn't meet the school board's budget request.
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