Bayfield School District administrators have started on the 2017-18 budget to make it fit with increasing student enrollment.
Finance Director Amy Lyons told the school board on Feb. 28 that it looks like the district will get around $250,000 more in state funding after the "Negative Factor," a device created by state legislators during the recession to reduce per pupil funding despite Amendment 23, approved by voters in 2000, that requires increases in per pupil funding.
From 2009 to this school year, the Negative Factor has cost the district $9.5 million, she said. "It's a tribute to our staff to not impact kids."
The Negative Factor will continue reducing Bayfield's per pupil funding by around $1,000 per student, Lyons said. The district gets around $7,600 per pupil this year and likely next year, but it should be around $8,600, she said.
She is using 1,328 as the estimated student count for funding, with kindergarteners counted as one-half. The actual number of kids is closer to 1,400 she said.
The district won't know the actual funded enrollment until after the official statewide student count day in early October.
The district is looking at an increase of around $85,000 on its premiums to PERA, the public employee retirement system, Lyons said, and an increase of around $75,000 for employee health insurance.
A staff pay increase is a big priority, she said. It will cost around $175,000. "What we're really focusing on is everyone, their annual step increases," she told the Times.
"We've been meeting with administrative staff" about positions, she said. "We're mindful of where we're spending money on kids."
Lyons continued, "This is very general right now. We know what PERA, health insurance, and staff (pay) increases will cost us. More than likely we'll need a staff bubble moving to the high school from the mid school" to match a student bubble.
There's another bubble in elementary grades. Two grades each have around 130 kids.
Superintendent Troy Zabel advised, "One of the big things in our strategic plan was to keep Bayfield kids (with severe special needs) in Bayfield, so we added a lot of programming. That's where we've added a lot of staffing around special needs populations. Those are very staff intensive." Some of those kids were previously transported to special needs classes in Durango.
He advised that the district will need to make up around $300,000. Lyons clarified to the Times that the staff pay increases, health insurance and PERA increases total around $300,000 "of new expenses before anything we have to cover in our budget."
Lyons said it remains to be seen what the legislature will approve for school funding. School district budgets run from July 1 to June 30, as does the state budget.
Lyons provided very preliminary revenue and operations spending numbers. Total revenue is projected at $14.5 million, up $328,458 from the current budget, with just over $10 million in state funding and $4.34 million from local taxes.
Operations spending also totals $14.5 million with almost $2.1 million in assorted reserves. The preliminary budget must be approved by June 30, subject to adjustments and a final budget after the October enrollment count is known.
