School Budget Outspends Revenue

The district’s new budget plans to spend more than it will receive in the coming fiscal year.

The budget, which was adopted Tuesday, includes $204 million in revenue and $207 in expenses.

To read the budget, click on the photo.

The district will compensate for the extra expense by dipping into its fund balance. An estimated $28 million will be left in the district’s fund when the fiscal year ends, according to Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Lori Ordway-Peck.

Part of the reason for the lack of balance is the district is legally forced to adopt its budget before the start of the fiscal year, June 30, even though the state has yet to adopt its budget.

So, the district has little idea how much money it will get from the state during the coming fiscal year, she said. “The age of uncertainty is the age in which we're building this budget.”

This makes planning an accurate budget impossible, said Trustee Vince O’Neal.

"We shouldn't be adopting a budget before the state adopts a budget," he said. “We have to get this changed.”

The budget is a “living document,” and will change during the year based on what the state decides, Ordway-Peck said.

The school is working with less money per student than it has in recent memory, and that compounds the problem, she said.

“We continue to operate with significantly less revenue than we have in the past,” she said.

The major reason for the diminished revenue was the plateau in enrollment.

The district gets nearly 75 percent of its money based on the number of students who enroll and attend class. This year, after years of “strong growth,” the number of students stayed the same as last year.

The district includes 27,700 students. “That’s a big deal for us because we’ve always been a high-growth district,” Ordway-Peck said.