District budget down for 2012

The Whitefish School Board last week

approved a mixed budget for 2011-12.

The elementary general fund budget

increased slightly by .5 percent, while the high school budget

decreased 4.25 percent. District-wide the budget is about $355,000

less than last year.

The budget reflects a mix of both

savings and increased costs throughout the district. Enrollment

levels forced the reduction of positions at both the elementary and

high school levels.

The elementary budget is seeing some

relief in its debt services because the Muldown Elementary bond has

been paid off. The original bond was issued in 1992 for 20 years

and has twice been refinanced. This should equal a savings of about

$270,000 per year.

However, Title II funding was reduced

by about $30,000 this year. To meet the shortfall, the district had

to absorb some additional salary costs in the elementary budget and

through attrition.

“We didn’t receive the stimulus funding

that we did before,” district clerk Danelle Reisch told the board.

“When we were first given that money we knew we’d have to make up

the funds. We had retirements that were beneficial.”

The transportation budget has increased

roughly $14,000 because of increased fuel costs. The transportation

contract figures gas at a rate of $3 per gallon. The cost for route

buses increased by about 1.5 percent while activity bus cost

increased about 2 percent.

A $1 to $1.50 cushion is built into the

transportation budget to account for a possible rise in gas costs,

Reisch noted. Savings in workers’ compensation rates allowed the

district to shift money into the transportation fund.

“The activity transportation fund is

never enough,” Reisch said. “The base contract is $3 per gallon

price, if gas goes up we pay more and if it goes down we get a

rebate back.”

Trustee David Fern said he would like

to have the district evaluate the number of students riding

buses.

“It seems like there is a lot of vacant

buses,” he said. “We might be able to combine routes.”

The buses have space for the maximum

number of riders on any day and routes are determined largely by

geography.

The district expects to spend roughly

$110,00 on textbooks districtwide.

“That’s a lot of Kindles,” Fern said

referring to the electronic book readers. He suggested that the

district’s new technology task force look at ways to help with

textbook costs by using computer-learning.

Superintendent Kate Orozco said the

district is beginning a task force to evaluate it’s computers and

looking at improving technology in the schools. Instructional

materials will likely continue to expand beyond textbooks, she

noted.

“In the future we might not see big

textbook purchases,” she said.

One change will likely be beneficial to

taxpayers due to the increase in taxable valuation. Unlike

municipal governments which have a limited number of mills, school

district levies are set as dollar amounts and then the levy amount

of mills required to meet the dollar values. The total elementary

and high school mill levy amount dropped by 7.67 mills.