The 2015-16 budget is a potential turning point for the Central Point School District; many of the factors that have had a significant and negative impact on our funding are beginning to reverse. However, the district also faces some challenges.
For the past 6 years, we’ve survived the recession through two primary strategies: reliance on our cash carryover and prudent spending. While some districts in Oregon will face major cuts with the Oregon Legislature’s current State School Fund levels, our district will not. District 6 simply doesn’t have the programs and positions to cut because we have not added back pre-recession teaching positions, programs and activities.
In the 2012-13 school year, we used 2.8 million of our fund balance and in 2013-14 we used $1.2 million of our ending fund balance to cover the gap between our revenue and expenditures. In the 2014-15 school year, the difference was $683, 000. Our proposed budget for 2015-16 moves us even closer to closing that gap as we project approximately $38 million dollars in general fund revenue and approximately $38.5 million in general fund expenditures. However, we have also made some strategic investments designed to increase our enrollment and generate additional revenue that may ultimately make up the difference (initial data indicate an ADMw increase of approximately $550, 000. This revenue is not in our revenue projection because we budget based on current enrollment, not anticipated enrollment).
Revenue
The 2015-16 school year is the first year in a new biennium and all indicators suggest that Oregon, like the rest of the nation, is recovering from the economic recession as state revenue is trending upward.
- The Oregon legislature identified the funding level and approved the funding for public schools much earlier than in past years. We have the numbers we need to project revenue from the state and build a budget.
- The $7.255 billion State School Fund is a slight increase over the last biennium, but is not enough to maintain current programs for most districts.
- Oregon Legislative leadership has communicated that $7.255 is the bottom level of funding and that 40% of any new revenue in 2015-17 biennium will be allocated to K-12 education. The next state revenue forecast is May 14th and we’ll learn whether or not additional funding is a possibility.
- The funding for the biennium is a 50-50 split (most years, the funding is split 49-51 to allow for annual roll up costs).
