The Evangeline Parish School Board got some good news from their business manager Wednesday.
        Business Manager Amy Lafleur said the board’s revised general fund balance for 2011-2012 was $55,356. She reported that due to actions taken two years ago such as adjusting pupil-teacher ratios helped the school board end the budget in the black. She said “All in all, we did exceptionally well,” said Lafleur.
        The board also adopted its new fiscal year budget for 2012-2013. The 45.4 million dollar general fund budget will show a balance of $42,900.
         Also on the subject of finances, Superintendent of Schools Toni Hamlin informed the school board of the need to find $2 million dollars to fund mandated new technology in school classrooms in the next two years.
        Hamlin said by 2014-2015, the state will be requiring school districts to provide on line testing for students in grades 3-11. It is estimated that it will cost the school board about $2 million dollars to implement the necessary technology. The executive committee will have that issue on their agenda later this month.
        Also, Superintendent Hamlin announced that the school district had a good start. She said there are about 100 more students enrolled this year than last year. There are over 6200 students enrolled parish wide.
       In other action, the school board:
–recognized Renee Fruge, teacher at W.W. Stewart Elementary School, a three year grant recipient from Smart Technologies;
–recognized Basile High School, W.W. Stewart Elementary and James Stephens Montessori School for their designation as a High Poverty/ High Performance School;
–received news that sales tax collections for the month of August was $274,806 better than August of 2011.