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Bigfork schools face budget deficit

by Jasmine Linabary
| March 2, 2011 1:00 AM

The Bigfork School District may be

looking at a more than $230,000 deficit as a “best-case scenario”

for its 2011-12 budget, business manager Eda Taylor announced at

the recent board meeting.

The challenge this year is that with

the Montana Legislature in progress, budget numbers won’t be known

for sure until the session is over, she said.

“It’s very hard to determine good

budget numbers in a legislative year,” Taylor said. “If everything

is the same, here’s where we’ll be.”

Figuring in no additional changes from

last year’s funding levels other than known contractual increases,

insurance increases and enrollment decreases, Bigfork High School

is looking at a minimum deficit of roughly $182,000. The elementary

school will have a shortfall of about $51,000.

That deficit will be larger if the loss

of federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding in the

general fund is not offset by the state. In that case, the deficit

district wide will more than double to be closer to $470,000. That

number is probably more realistic, Taylor said.

“We tried our best to keep salaries out

of ARRA money,” she said. “It was labeled as one-time only

money.”

The shortfall could be even bigger than

that though, if the legislature goes forward with a discussed 5

percent cut from all areas of the state budget, Taylor said.

Last year the district faced a

shortfall of approximately $297,000, the biggest in recent memory.

As a result, the board offered an early-retirement incentive, which

was taken by half a dozen teachers and staff members. Two certified

teachers were cut and another teaching position was left unfilled.

Five classified staff positions, both full and part time, were also

eliminated. A number of other positions, certified and classified

including tenured staff, also experienced reduced assignments or

were reassigned. In addition to a number of other smaller cuts,

funding for two sports programs, golf and cross country, was

eliminated.

With at a minimum a shortfall a bit

less than last year’s deficit, but likely more, the Bigfork School

District will be looking to make tough decisions on the budget

later this spring.

“It’s a grim picture, but it’s the same

grim picture everyone else is facing,” board chair Maureen Averill

said.

Other schools in the Flathead Valley

are also facing deficits. Kalispell schools are looking at a

minimum of a $500,000 shortfall. The Columbia Falls School District

is anticipating being at least $440,000 in the red. All of the

school districts though are in the same boat when it comes to

waiting on the legislature.

“We don’t know what comes next in

Helena,” Taylor said. “If history has it, it usually is the very

last thing (they address). We won’t know until May.”

Superintendent Cynthia Clary said work

will be ongoing on the budget, though it will be difficult until

those final numbers are known.

“It’s a work in progress,” Clary said

of the numbers. “We’d like to get information out as soon as

possible for staffing, but with a legislative session it makes it

really difficult.”

To get an idea of where the district is

at this year with funding, Clary requested that all purchase orders

for the school year be completed by March 1 so that an accurate

picture of spending could be determined.

 

APPROACH TO CUTS

Clary as well as principals at both

schools said as they look at cuts their goal is to focus on line

items that will have the least impact on students.

“I want to preserve the high

achievement and the sense of students feeling motivated in our

school and feeling like they belong,” said Jackie Boshka, principal

of the Bigfork Elementary and Middle School. “That’s what I’ll be

using as the No. 1 measure.”

Matt Jensen, principal at Bigfork High

School, said he will look to cut items that won’t change or cause

damage to the core aspects of the school, such as its small class

sizes and student achievement.

“We try to identify things that are the

furthest away and those are the most appropriate to cut and

hopefully have the least impact as possible to that core,” he

said.

Part of the deficit comes from a

decrease in enrollment numbers, which have been figured for the

district using three-year averages. Bigfork High School will see

the largest drop for its 2011-12 budget with a reduction of 27

students in its Average Number Belonging, or ANB, from the current

year’s figure. ANB is the enrollment figure used to calculate how

much funding the school will receive. Though that number impacts

the school’s budget, Jensen noted that the decline in enrollment

can be misleading.

“We have 18 students out of the

district that are coming to our school by choice and we have nine

in the district going out of the district by choice,” Jensen said.

“We have more students coming to us than leaving us. The drop in

enrollment is not from students leaving — it’s due to less

school-aged children living in our boundaries.”

That trend has been going on for

awhile, leading to overall decreasing enrollment at the high

school. The low-point is anticipated to come with the current

eighth-grade class in the district, which has been the smallest in

recent years. Following that class moving to the high school,

projections based on enrollment at the middle and elementary

schools show numbers on the increase again. Boshka said though the

elementary and middle school have seen drops in enrollment,

including seven students for the next year’s ANB, she’s seen class

sizes stabilizing.

It’s too early to identify specific

cuts, but Boshka said she’s hopeful the situation won’t be as bleak

as some suspect.

“I’m trying to be optimistic,” she

said. “It’s so early that it’s hard to predict.”

Jensen praised the approach of board

members to explore options for building maintenance issues and

other budget dilemmas that are ongoing.

“My hope is that everyone continues to

look at the issues for solutions,” he said. “We can all use some

creativity to solve problems. But, you don’t face a budget deficit

that large and not have some uncomfortable cuts.”