The Anacortes School Board will get a budget update this week as district leaders continue to wrestle with next year’s budget. They are working to cut just over $500,000.

“We’re still working on the budget,” said Lisa Matthews, business and finance director.

The board meeting is 6:15 p.m. Thursday, June 26.

School districts across the county are dealing with higher costs. That means districts need to bring inflated costs in line with revenue, which isn’t keeping up.

Driving higher costs across the county are cost of living raises, increases in fuel and food costs and doing more things the state requires but doesn’t fund. On the revenue side, Anacortes is dealing with another expected drop in enrollment, perhaps 60 students. That means about $320,000 less in funding from the state.

School leaders say cuts in Anacortes will focus on areas like eliminating low-turnout extra curricular activities and not replacing staff who resign or retire. They don’t plan to cut academic programs and hope to find savings elsewhere in the budget.

The budget is still a work in progress. A summary is expected to be available to the public in early July and the board will likely approve the budget in August. The board is also scheduled to discuss options to repair the roofs at Mount Erie Elementary School and Anacortes High School.

The district increased its maintenance budget after its $62.9 million bond request failed in February. The bond would have paid for some things that the district will now have to cover with its current budget. It already replaced two boilers at Mount Erie Elementary School, at a cost of about $53,000, using funds from the district’s maintenance budget.

The board is scheduled to hear three options to repair the two schools’ roofs.

The first option, and seemingly the most expensive, would be to do a state bid contract with the King County Directors Association. No public bid process would be required. Pre-tax cost estimates are $262,000 to $301,000 for Mount Erie and $378,000 to $414,000 for the high school.

In a memo to the board, Dale Bowen, district director of personnel and operations, said the advantages include being able to complete the work this summer.

The major disadvantage is price. He said the district would only have enough in the capital projects account to complete one of the buildings.

The second option is to contract with Wetherholt and Associates to provide the district with bid specifications, a pre-tax cost of about $16,000.

Once completed, the district could go to bid sometime in November 2008-January 2009. A local roofing contractor estimated the Mount Erie project would cost about $131,000.

Bowen said the district would probably bid both projects together and could have enough in the capital projects fund to pay for both.

This option will likely cost less and would allow local contractors to bid on the projects. Bowen said one disadvantage is the work wouldn’t be completed until summer 2009.

A third option would be to consider asking voters to approve a capital projects levy. Capital projects levies usually run one to six years and need a 50 percent simple majority to pass. Amounts are usually lower than a bond request.

For more information on the board meeting visit http://board.asd103.org.