Business Manager Jerry Anderson submitted his resignation to the Wadena-Deer Creek School Board for the second time in the last three years Monday in the WDC Media Center.
Anderson will be in attendance at the board's February meeting but some of his duties will be taken over by Bruce Boyne, who has been working with the district on securing Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds.
Anderson has been a part-time employee of the district for 2007 years after handling the job full-time for 13 years. His position was cut to part-time when District 2155 had to deal with a reduction in state aid due to a falling enrollment.
"We were making 4 to 5 to $600,000 budget cuts every year," Anderson recalled.
With an eye to the future, Anderson informed the board that his best preliminary estimate for the 2012-2013 budget's general fund is $.9655 million in revenue with $9.612 million in expenditures.
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"It's going to change, hopefully not significantly but it's going to change. Budgets always do," Anderson said. "This one has a few more unknowns as far as expenses in the new building. There might be some expenses that might come up that you do not anticipate."
The district's new secondary school is scheduled to be ready for classes in September.
Anderson also informed the board that the district has received the final insurance payment from the Riverport group in the amount of $10.3 million.
Anderson resigned in Oct. 2009 to draw his public employee retirement benefits but returned one month later.
"I always intended to return but I had to be off 30 days to receive the benefit," Anderson said. It's a state employment requirement when a person wants to go back to work for a public entity where they worked before."
Like many others, Anderson will miss the people he has worked with for the past 18 years.
"There are certain things that any job that you may not like, that are stressful, but people are the big thing. I've worked with a lot of very dedicated, hard-working individuals over the years and I will miss them."
Anderson plans to remain in Wadena after his retirement.
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"We are going to miss Jerry Anderson," Dahlstrom said. "Jerry stepped up to support Wadena-Deer Creek with not only the regular business duties but also with helping us get through these trying times with construction management and moving forward. He has been stellar in his work performance."
Dahlstrom anticipates difficulties for the District 2155 board in finding replacement for Anderson. Dahlstrom has been in contact with the Staples-Motley district, which has been advertising a business manager's position for two weeks.
The board approved Anderson's resignation and hired Tracy Dreger to be the Kid's Club Coodinator and Avenlee Kurzenberger to be a .5 special education assistant. Lane changes were approved for Jason Mielke and Brenda Thelen.
