RIPLEY — Not filling one teaching position and cutting another teaching position will allow the Ripley Central School District to meet its contingency budget.

Following announcing two teaching position cuts last month, the Ripley Central School District Thursday held a board of education meeting to discuss the district’s financial future.

The cuts were the result of a failed 2018-19 school budget vote in May and again in June forcing the district to resort to a contingency budget. The teaching cuts included one vacant position that was simply not being filled. Minor equipment cuts were included in the budget over haul.

On Thursday, Board President Paul McCutcheon’s first meeting in his new role, the board discussed the changes that were made.

“The budget committee had a lot of things to work on to get us within in the contingency budget and into line where we need be financially,” McCutcheon said.

The 2018-19 contingency budget totals $9,181,160 which is $28,110 less than the 2018-19 proposed budget of $9,209,270.

Among the cuts included a physical education position that became vacant during the previous year and will not be filled. The other cut was an AIS teaching position. In addition with the minor equipment cuts, the salary and benefits of the teaching positions allowed the district to come within range of its contingency budget.

“I don’t want to say we’re in good shape, but we’re in good shape to get us through the year,” McCutcheon said.

The new board president reiterated a sentiment Superintendent William Caldwell told The Post-Journal in July that the board will need to educate the community on where the district stands financially.

“Hopefully we get the district to understand where we’re at and so we’re not doing the same thing again,” he said.

The board agreed that 2019-20 budget outlook would be unknown until the district has an idea what its state aid projections are.

During superintendent’s report, Caldwell brought to the board’s attention the district’s transportation policy regarding the minimum distance of which a school bus would pick up a student or lack thereof. Caldwell said the district didn’t have a written policy regarding a specific mile radius cutoff for residents who the district would not provide bussing for. He shared a schematic with the board displaying a cutoff of a half a mile from the school for discussion purposes. He said he was not seeking board action or making an official recommendation on Thursday, but he did want to move forward with a policy update at the following board meeting in September.

Caldwell said any residents who could potentially be impacted by an updated policy will be notified before the changes are made. Currently, Caldwell said the district estimated 10 students could be impacted by the potential change. Such a change would only impact the elementary students as the middle and high school students are being bussed to the Chautauqua Lake Central School District.