Get AI Briefings, Transcripts & Alerts on Local & National Government Meetings — Forever.
Business director tells budget committee supplemental shifts move federal forest fees to reserves; year-end balance projected at roughly $7M
Loading...
Summary
At a budget-committee meeting, the district business director described a supplemental budget that moves prior-year federal forest (Secure Rural Schools) payments into reserve accounts, reduces some interfund transfers, accounts for negotiated pay increases and projects an ending general-fund balance in the low millions depending on final receipts and encumbrances.
The district business director told the budget committee the supplemental budget approved by the board in February reallocated several large items and adjusted estimates for fiscal year 2526, including moving prior-year federal forest fee payments into reserve accounts rather than leaving them in the general fund. The director said the shift was intended to preserve those one-time funds for construction and textbook adoptions rather than treating them as recurring revenue.
The director said local property taxes rose by roughly $260,000 and intermediate revenues increased by a similar amount; state grant dollars and the state school fund were revised upward by about $551,000 after the district updated its average daily membership (ADM) estimates to avoid owing money on the state true-up. The director also reported a net reduction on the federal-sources line of about $1.5 million because the district removed previously budgeted federal forest-fee back-pay from the general fund and placed most of it in reserve accounts.
Asked how that affects near-term operations, the business director said she moved roughly $1 million from reserve accounts to backfill shortfalls that emerged during the year and reduced interfund transfers by about $500,000. She told the committee the district also expects some reimbursements — including about $38,000 tied to SB 1149 grant activity (Pacific Power lighting reimbursements) — to flow back to the general fund when projects are completed.
On the expenditure side, the director said contract settlements and ratified certified contracts generated roughly $503,000 of additional salary-and-benefit costs this year (including retroactive payments). Payroll encumbrances for April–June are included in the current totals, and staffing-related MOUs (mileage and housing stipends for hard-to-fill rural sites) also factor into the projection.
Taken together, the director said the general-fund budget is about $119 million for 2526 and that current projections put the district’s ending general-fund balance in the range of roughly $7 million (a more conservative internal projection) to about $10 million depending on final expenditures and receipts such as the state true-up and any remaining federal receipts. The director described the beginning fund balance as an audited $8.2 million (down from her earlier estimate of $8.9 million) and emphasized that some numbers remain provisional until year-end closing.
The director asked committee members to review the posted budget documents and email any questions; answers will be posted publicly alongside the proposed budget. She also noted the budget committee will reconvene at 5 p.m. next Thursday and again May 7 (and May 14 if needed), with board adoption planned for June 18 and state submission by June 30.
