Superintendent's Corner: September 2023
Launch the media gallery 1 playerAt the beginning of each school year, the school board for each district is required to approve an annual budget. The budget of a district includes its revenues along with its expenditures. Revenues for schools come from student enrollment. We get money for each child that attends the school. We also get money from property taxes. The third source of revenue is the Federal Government as we get support for various programs such as Special Education and Title Funds (which are based on multiple factors such as a student’s family income), and the feds help us support our Food Service Program.
As with any budget, the goal for a school district is to have more income than expenditures. When a school is able to have more revenue coming in than money going out, the excess funds are added to the district’s Carry Over fund (or Fund Balance). Ideally, a district wants to have enough in its reserves (Carry Over Fund) to cover just in case something significant happens and additional funds are needed.
While we are working through end-of-the-year details to close out the ‘22-’23 school year, it looks like we will be in good shape. The Carryover balance should be in the neighborhood of $829,000 which is about $22,000 less than what we started the “22-’23 school year with. We initially estimated the carryover to be about $100k less so we are in pretty good shape. Looking at this year’s budget (‘23-’24) we are getting additional revenue from the state to cover payroll costs included with the state’s new increased pay scale. We are getting a little more than we need to cover the pay increases. Enrollment is up about 12 students this year which in turn will create additional revenue. If we can keep our expenses about the same, we should be in good shape financially.
The school budgeting process, in detail, can be pretty complicated. The purpose of this report is to simply let you know that the financial status of the district is sound. We will update you annually on the status of the district. If you have more detailed questions regarding the school budget, please let me know.