The Hynes Charter school board welcomed two new members and approved the 2012-2013 operating budget in its last meeting of the school year, June 11.

Helene Derbigny and Cassandra Youmans will replace departing board members, Todd Schexnayder and Elizabeth Sigler. Vice president Alvin Meister will succeed Schexnayder as board president next fall.

In other items on the agenda, the board approved the school’s 2012-2013 budget. The board thanked the school’s chief financial officer, John Gaudry, and the school principal, Michelle Douglas, for managing revenues as expenses continue to rise.

Facilities manager Ken Ducote, at the request of the board, gave a follow-up report on the school’s soaring energy bills. The school’s Entergy bill topped $25,000 in February and March. Ducote has been working with the Orleans Parish School Board and Entergy to lower costs. April and May’s  energy bills, calculated at a new rate, were $17,000, much closer to the $15,000 the school budgets for utilities each month.

Entergy will produce an updated bill later this month and will refund Hynes for earlier bills, Ducote told the board.

In her school report, Douglas announced that Sandra Rockwell, a middle school teacher at Hynes, is one of nine finalists for the state’s middle school teacher of the year. In other news, Hynes’ teaching staff will have its annual school retreat on August 2-3 at the UNO Homer Hitt Center.

Board members Darlene Morgan Brown and April Bedford were absent for the hour-long meeting.