Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
DAVENPORT – The school board approved two finance-related resolutions at its July 26 meeting. One was petitioning OSPI for a 2020-21 budget extension due to increased expenditures caused by the pandemic, and the other was approving the 2021-22 budget.
The budget extension will raise general fund expenditures from $8,608,710 to $9,062,976, a rise of $454,266. The district must petition OSPI as a state requirement.
“We’re required by the state to ask to spend more money than we originally thought,” business manager Leslie Oliver told the board. “The main reason is COVID expenditures, online school costs, health supplies, increased food service costs (and) things like that…I doubt we’ll spend that much, but that’s the budget.”
The district is expected to start 2021-22 with the highest beginning fund balance its had in the general fund at $1,073,045, so it actually plans to spend down somewhat by budgeting $9,974,171 in spending, $9,833,191 in projected revenue and $30,000 to transfer to debt service for an ending fund balance of $902,065.
“We’re going to spend down a bit on services we’ve never had the money for until now,” Oliver said.
If the general fund end balance does indeed go down by the end of the fiscal year 2022, it will be the first time that’s happened in the district since the 2016-17 school year.
Potential federal funding is expected to skyrocket in 2022 up to $1.9 million due to ESSER funding, federal food programs and potential distance learning grant funding.
The district also plans to spend down its share of the capital projects fund, which is used for repairs, renovations and upgrades to buildings and equipment. The district is budgeting for $585,000 in the beginning fund balance, $537,312 in revenue and $750,000 in expenditures for a $372,312 ending fund balance.
Paying off the district’s bond further is another priority, so the district is budgeting $1.2 million in expenditures from the debt service fund after $420,000 in a beginning fund balance, $942,640 in revenues and a $30,000 transfer from the general fund. That leaves an ending fund balance of $192,240.
The ASB fund is budgeted to spend $295,531 after $283,075 in revenue and a beginning fund balance of $103,870. That leaves an ending fund balance of $91,414.
The district plans to buy a new school bus this year which will cost $145,000 from the transportation vehicle fund. With a beginning fund balance of $116,062 and revenues expected at $127,000, that leaves an ending fund balance of $98,062.
General fund balances are expected to earn a net positive in 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
Oliver said the district expects to receive $1.2 million in ESSER III funding, but won’t spend that all this year.
Drew Lawson is the former managing editor of the Davenport Times and a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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