The Lindbergh Board of Education voted unanimously last week to adopt a revised 2014-2015 operating budget that projects a surplus of more than $334,000.

The revised operating budget projects revenue of nearly $66 million with expenditures of roughly $69.2 million. Expenditures include roughly $3.5 million in one-time capital expenses that will be funded from district reserves.

Updated revenue projections since the original budget was adopted in June show an increase of roughly $1.9 million, Chief Financial Officer Charles Triplett told the school board at its Dec. 9 meeting.

“The main sources of that are from the end of a smaller TIF (tax-increment financing district) we had at Fenton Crossing, as well as new construction in residential and commercial property that we didn’t learn about until July …,” he said.

Due to increased enrollment, Lindbergh also is receiving additional state funds, Triplett said, noting that while the majority of the district’s revenue comes from taxpayers, “the state aid is also helpful.”

Regarding the updated expenditure projections, Triplett said, “All of it is really related to our growth. So the board approved a $3.5 million total of expenditures out of reserves to deal with either property development or buildings — the new ECE (Early Childhood Education) building, the field development at Sappington (Elementary), the completion of the Long field, over at Long Elementary, and the purchase of some property next to Dressel (School) in order to make that campus complete and give access from two points there.

“We also have additional staffing on top of what was approved in June, as we (added) more students in July, and August and September. I actually got an email today from a principal saying, ‘We’re out of desks. We need a few more desks because kids keep enrolling …'”

The revised operating budget anticipates expenditures of $69,241,204 — including the board-approved $3,578,777 for one-time capital expenditures from reserves for property purchases and development — with projected revenue of $65,996,989.

“That is a $3.2 million difference, but again, $3.5 million was approved by the board as one-time expenditures on capital projects,” Triplett said. “So once those are paid for out of this year, they won’t be reoccurring expenses. With that, we will have a slight surplus in what we call operational expenses, or the year-over-year expenses, with what we have in the way of new revenue and the projected spending that we have for this year …”

The original operating budget approved in June projected a surplus of $77,028.