Superintendent's Budget Recommendation

As promised, I have posted my fiscal year 2010 budget recommendations prior to the special Board meeting on April 28 on the District web site. The purpose of the special meeting on the 28th is for the trustees to set the amount of the supplemental levy which will be voted on Tuesday, May 19. Of course, it is necessary to have some preliminary budget figures to enable us to determine the needed amount for the levy.

In addition to my recommendations which will be forwarded to the trustees, I have also posted a very preliminary maintenance and operations budget. It is preliminary because we will continue to refine the budget until our budget hearing in June as we receive additional information from the Idaho Department of Education and the United States Department of Education. The legislature is still in session as I write this and several education bills and the FY2010 state education budget have not yet been signed into law. Changes can still occur. Final interpretations of new laws have not yet been completed by the State Department. Regardless, we need to move forward with the best information we have at the moment.

Even though we are losing student enrollment, we are fortunate that we are in "protected status" this year. This means that we are guaranteed 99% of the prior year's support units. This provision of state law helps districts that are losing enrollment to adjust to the new lower enrollment figures. However, this is only for one year. If our numbers remain the same next year, we will decrease by two support units (from 19.5 to 17.5). This is extremely significant and will have a major impact on our FY2011 budget. A support unit is like a classroom unit which has 1.1 instructional staff members attached to it. A reduction of two support units will impact the district by $175,000. It is imperative that we adjust to this downward trend in enrollment. That is one of the reasons why I am recommending the reduction of 1.2 FTE staff members for FY2010.

Some will probably question my recommendation of a lower supplemental levy. The reasons are really quite simple. First, through our management of the budget and slightly larger than anticipated state funding for FY2009, we have a higher than necessary fund balance. We are able to return this "extra" money to the taxpayers through a reduced levy. In addition, many of our patrons have lost employment or had their hours reduced. I feel strongly that we need to provide tax relief and be as fiscally prudent as we can. The third reason is the necessity to pass this levy. Without the successful passage of this levy, the District will need to make additional program and staffing cuts.