GIBBON — The Gibbon Fairfax Winthrop (GFW) School Board will meet to act on a resolution for recovery from statutory pperating debt (SOD) Monday, Jan. 26.

According to the resolution, District 2365 (GFW) moved into statutory operating debt as of June 30, 2020. State law requires a school district in SOD to submit to the Minnesota education commissioner a special operating plan to reduce deficit expenditures; and to receive aid contigent on the school district’s continued compliance with the plan.

Under the resolution, the GFW board:

• Approves the SOD, recovery spreadsheets and transmits them to the Minnesota Department of Education.

• Agrees to reduce current year expenditures by all legal means possible, without negatively impacting current programs or contractual obligations.

• Agrees to immediately discontinue the practice of approving deficit budgets;

• Creates an unreserved fund balance target of 5% or greater within three years after removal of SOD;

• Agrees to a “dollar for dollar” cut in current and future budgets to respond to a negative variance in revenues and expenditures as displayed in the SOD plan;

• Agrees to remove the condition of the SOD by the end of FY 2024 and achieve a positive fund balance by FY 2025;

• Requests specialized training as appropriate;

• Agrees to submit preliminary budgets to the MDE showing the discontinuance of deficit spending, prior to formal board approval, each subsequent year until the removal of negative fund balances.

The board meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. in the GFW Elementary School gym and will be livestreamed on the school district Facebook site.

Fritz Busch can be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com.