MSD preliminary budget calls for concern, optimism

MEEKER I Meeker School District is one of only three districts statewide that will see a decrease in its per-pupil funding for Fiscal Year 2013-14 (FY14), according to Meeker School District Superintendent Susan Goettel.
Due to the Colorado State School Finance Formula, the district will lose an average of $352 per student or a total of about $250,000, Goettel said.
Meanwhile, on June 20, the Meeker School District (MSD) trustees approved a budget of $6,378,711 in expenditures with revenue of $5,811,563 for a deficit of $567,000 overall.
“The district will still be OK as this falls within a familiar pattern we have seen the past couple of years,” Goettel said. “No one wants to start the fiscal year down, but if past patterns hold up, we are projecting that the total budget, which kicks in July 1, will actually finish the year with a deficit of around $62,000.”
The “preliminary” budget that was approved June 20 by the Meeker School Board was accepted before the required June 30 state deadline, but, Goettel explained, the budget won’t actually be fully known until the end of January 2014, allowing the board time to tinker with the figures in hopes of cutting the losses and there is another “payday” before the end of this fiscal year.
“There isn’t much we can afford to cut,” Board President Iris Franklin said at the June 20 meeting. “We have mandates that can’t be cut and we can’t cut personnel any further.
“We want to encourage this being a good work place and we acknowledge that there are some teachers now doing more than they should,” Franklin said. “We must find a way to increase revenues.
“We can seek a bond election to increase the mill levy or we can sell some school property,” she said. “But we need to improve this preliminary budget.”
The board did approve the preliminary budget on a unanimous vote of those present.
“I am confident the district will be OK,” Goettel said Friday. “This board has always been fiscally conservative, and a budget deficit is not new to us.”
Last year, she said, the district approved a preliminary budget that was $425,000 in the red, but that with revisions made throughout the year, the loss was only $60,000, and that was paid by carry-over funds from the previous year.
Goettel explained that MSD doesn’t receive funds that can be added to the budget from the state because of the state finance formula.
“We do get funds during the year, but we have to return them at the end of the year,” Goettel said. “Those funds do at least give us cash on hand until we start collecting the tax funds, and those funds start coming in with property tax payments paid by county property holders — in March or April.
She said the Meeker School District has $3,364,000 remaining in the general fund from the current fiscal year with another week remaining. But those funds must last until the tax funds start coming in.
Goettel said that the state funding formula determines how much money goes to each school district.
“We are raising enough (tax funds on our own) that we won’t get state funds,” she said. “The state figures out what each district deserves through its formula based on a per-student count.
“Rangely, for instance, doesn’t raise enough in taxes to reach the average per-student cost, so the state takes from the wealthier districts and gives those funds to those districts who make less than the formula dictates,” she said “Hence, we are giving money back to the state so they can fund those districts who don’t raise enough.”
Another factor diversely affecting MSD is the State Stabilization Factor (SSF), which was established by a former state governor to help balance the state budget.
This year, Goettel said, the MSD will lose $123,350 to the SSF as compared to last year, when the district paid only $891.
“We anticipate a $624,000 payment this month, which is the last payment we will receive for this fiscal year,” Goettel said. “Usually, that figure comes closer to $1 million. If that is true this year, then that will put money back into our general fund and make the budget deficit much smaller. That is more consistent with past practices and will certainly help us make up a good portion of the budget shortfall.”
There are enough reserves with the district that any deficit should be easy to cover in the 2014 budget, she said.
“We can certainly cover up lost revenues for a couple more years with our overall general fund balance, but Mrs. Franklin is absolutely correct that the district can’t do that forever,” Goettel said. “I believe we have the reserves to cover any shortfalls for up to three years.
“I am sure the district board will continue to work diligently to reduce that deficit after I am gone (her last day at work is Friday),” Goettel said. “The trustees will continue to explore options to increase revenues through other funding sources such as grants or property sales, and the district does have many properties not being utilized currently by the schools.
“The district also has some speakers coming in to help the board and administration look at the overall picture of school financing,” she said. “I expect some solutions will come out of these speakers and that the district will come out of it fine.”