Yellow Pages
Superintendent Mark Venn announced $508,500 in cuts and adjustments to the 2008-09 Sedro-Woolley School District budget in response to lower enrollments numbers reported at the beginning of the month.
Venn presented the budget change, which include $156,000 in actual reductions, to the school board Monday evening at Evergreen Elementary School.
“If our enrollment had come up, we wouldn’t have to reduce as much as we’re seeing there,” Venn said.
Enrollment for the beginning of the school year was 60 full time students below what the district expected.
The budget reductions include $94,000 in fuel costs, an unfilled $40,000 per year job in the district office, $12,500 in building maintenance costs across the district and $10,000 for a vacated part-time music teaching position that will not be filled.
Venn said the largest cut, $94,000 for fuel, was possible because the district budgeted for 94,000 gallons of diesel fuel at a rate of $6 per gallon. Venn said prices have not risen as quickly as predicted this school year, and reduced the budget to $5 per gallon.
The remaining $352,000 shortfall will be paid for with surplus funds leftover from the 2007-08 budget.
Some of that reserved money will come from funds accumulated from Initiative 728 money, approved by voters in 2000 to reduce class size, develop pre-Kindergarten programs and train teachers.
Venn said that reserves are there to address shortfalls in the budget. The school district maintains a 3-to-5 percent reserve in anticipation of budget shortfalls.
Venn additionally proposed that the district hold $239,000 of other expenditures until later in the school year in case there is a further drop in enrollment, which would also reduce the amount of state funding to the district.
Venn also proposed that the district hold more Initiative 728 money until later in the year. He suggested holding $20,000 from 2007-08 reserves and $49,000 from 2008-09 I-728 funds.
