Colfax school passes deficit budget

Faced with a steep drop in revenue, Colfax school board Monday passed a budget for the coming school year that is $286,000 less than last year. The 2010-2011 budget also has a $237,840 deficit, which will be balanced out of the district’s reserves.

Total charted for the 2009-2010 school year was $6,549,262. The total projected expenditures for next year are $6,263,835.

Biggest boost for the budget was the departure of four employees, whose combined salaries totaled $198,075 plus more than $50,000 in benefits.

Business Manager Reese Jenkin said district reserves at the start of the school year stand at $437,000.

Superintendent Michael Morgan said the district avoided layoffs this year by continuing to chip smaller pieces out of many different school expenses.

Jenkin said the district is continuing to work as efficiently as possible given the school’s declining enrollment and declining state funds.

“We’re doing the best we can with the resources we are receiving,” he said.

For example, there is no district field trip money this year, although trips can still be made through the elementary and high school building budgets.

The industrial arts program, which had little attendance, is also not funded.

There is little funding for staff development, but the annual Professional Learning Day hosted by Colfax schools is a step toward filling that gap.

Throughout the state, schools also lost I-728 funds, a special allotment from the state aimed at keeping class sizes smaller.

Morgan in an interview with the Gazette pointed out the budget lists the total capacity the district could be able to pay in any given category. Some of the listed amounts in each category may not necessarily be used in full and that would result in a gain when the budget closes out at the end of the year.

For the 2008-2009 school year, the district was picked for a financial single audit which reviewed its finances and use of funding behind federal programs. The audit was ordered, said Jenkin, because the district received more than $500,000 in stimulus funding that year.

The district received a clean report on its audit, a feat Jenkin said pointed to staff’s competence in the difficult economy.

“I think it shows the district is doing a good job right now as far as managing the resources they have,” he said.