By CARA LORELLO
Staff Reporter
Medical Lake School District is hoping the enrollment number budgeted for next year will come in higher than expected as schools continued to see drops this last year, which officials say is largely due to the housing privatization efforts at Fairchild Air Force Base expected to continue over the next four years.
District finance specialist Don Johnson reported to the district school board on June 24 that 2,000 was the key figure budgeted for enrollment next year officials hope to attain, but if next year is anything like the last nine years have shown number wise, just meeting that figure would be nice.
The district has budgeted for 2,000 full time equivalent students, plus 12 students in the Running Start program for a total of 2,012.
“These enrollment numbers are 20 FTE below what we budgeted for last year and 32 below the attending enrollment for the '07-08 year,” Johnson said, explaining to the board that overall budgeting for next year was a bit painful.
Dealing with the continued drops in enrollment are coupled with large increases in cost of living adjustments, healthcare and retirement rates for teachers, who make up most of the district's payrolls. It's raised spending 4.3 percent over last year, most of it going to salaries and benefits.
“Because the increase in salary and benefits is not fully funded by the state, we have to make up the difference from other funds,” Johnson explained during the meeting. Those other funds include annual federal impact aid, levy and levy equalization monies.
All these revenue funds were increased for next year, mainly to offset hikes for COLA costs and loss of other funds, and assuming impact aid payments stay on schedule.
“Our expenditures are up too, for the same reasons state revenue is up, and that's because of COLA costs. It's a hole in our budget,” Johnson said, adding this year's auditors were “optimistic” the district will get a $40,000 increase from last year's allocation, but it's not certain at this time.
The district's Title I allocation increased by $41,538 for next year as well.
“That's good because we've seen this go down for some years. This is the largest increase we've seen in a while,” Johnson said.
Transportation is another area spending is going up, he added. District fleet buses are currently paying over four and half dollars per gallon for diesel fuel. Delivery costs for food and supplies are also higher, and with prices on the rise nationwide, officials budgeted for $5.50 a gallon for next year. The hope is that prices won't rise too high beyond this estimation, Johnson said.
Discontinuing this year was the district's Safe Schools Healthy Kids grant, whose original purpose was to fund after school activity programs at Medical Lake Middle School. The grant ran for three years and Johnson said allowed students to engage in 100 different projects during its cycle, but it was all that basically sustained the activities.
“State funding just isn't where it needs to be,” Johnson added.
Some good news was that all schools reported substantial numbers in their Associated Student Body funds with a projected ending fund balance of $175,925. The district also put $225,000 from its Transportation Vehicle Fund toward the purchase of two, possibly three new buses for next year as well, to be delivered this fall.
Johnson said overall the next-year budget is workable, though difficult to balance. Board members unanimously approved the new budget following a pre-meeting hearing.
Cara Lorello can be reached at [email protected]
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