Durango School District 9-R board members have approved a general fund budget with expenditures of $39.66 million for the year beginning July 1, a 2.11 percent increase from the current year.
General fund spending for the current year, only an estimate at this time, is expected to come in at $38.84 million.
Virtually eliminated for the 2014-15 budget is deficit spending, which means digging into reserves. Deficit spending became routine in recent years as legislators in Denver dealt with decreased state revenues during the recession and subsequent anemic recovery.
The state also increased K-12 school funding this year as state tax revenue collections finally have brightened.
In a prepared budget summary, Durango School Superintendant Dan Snowberger wrote, “The Student Success Act (HB 14-1292) is a good effort on the part of the Legislature to close the negative factor caused during the recession and begin our road to increased K-12 funding.”
The act provides the district with $1,787,041. Total funding from the state came in at $21.445 million for the 2014-15 budget year – compared with $19.763 million for the current year.
Deficit spending for the 2014-15 school year will be $395,192, but the bulk of it, $300,000, is earmarked for emergencies. Only $95,192 has assigned targets to cover specific shortfalls in programs.
It's necessary to have money set aside for emergencies because the school board can amend a budget only once a year, which usually is done in January.
The deficit spending keeps the general fund reserves at 15.18 percent, barely above the 15 percent cap set by the board.
The virtually balanced budget also contains certain one-time costs that will allow the district to prevent further erosion, establish a sustainable workforce and pay for critical needs.
Salaries and benefits, representing 84 percent of the budget in the current year, were eating the district alive. To bring costs down, the district eliminated 24 teachers and reduced administrative costs through reclassification and consolidation of duties.
Two early-retirement packages offered to teachers and staff incurred a one-time cost of $342,694. Compensation packages equal to one year of salaries and benefits for nonprobationary teachers who were not rehired cost $258,647, again a one-time expense.
The total came to $601,341, reducing the percentage of salaries and benefits in the 2014-15 budget to 80 percent of the total.
The Financial Accountability Committee, composed of seven community members, including businesspeople, supported the budgetary rationale.
The budget reflects increases and decreases in spending for a variety of needs:
The Shared School Option budget increased for school year 2014-15 to $371,613 from $204,000 this year. Shared School covers cost of materials and staff to provide enrichment programs for home-schooled and private-school students in grades K-6 and a new principal to oversee the program.
Spending increased to $110,250 from $62,419 this year to provide extra tutoring before and after school and during the summer for academically struggling students.
Adoption of a new math curriculum required the purchase of textbooks and materials aligned to Colorado Academic Standards. Money also is available for a new teacher and increased staffing if enrollment grows. The budget increased to $845,220 from $370,000.
Spending for special education and San Juan Board of Cooperative Educational Services decreased to $971,494 from $3.2 million. The reason: The cost of school-based staff for these programs has been shifted back to budgets for the individual schools. The program also supports Pathways to Independence, which provides special education for students ages 18 to 21 who need to develop life skills.
The budget for English-language learners also has been shifted largely to individual school budgets, accounting for a drop in budget to $22,000 from $462,963. The new amount covers whatever is not paid for by the individual schools.
Health-service costs, which consist of four registered nurses throughout the district, increased to $259,137 from $168,312. The increase reflects a loss in federal Medicaid funds, which the district has to make up. In addition, the district contributed $45,000 to support school-based health centers at Durango High School and Florida Mesa Elementary School.
daler@durangoherald.com
