When projected spending exceeds the amount of dollars incoming, school districts are put in a tough situation as they try to find a way to make ends meet. Though the Forest Lake Area School District is currently in that boat, school officials said that smart planning allowed their district to be better off than some others.
“We were smart in that we planned our budget around an expected 2 percent increase in per pupil funding, and that is what we got,” Business Director Larry Martini said. “Unfortunately, it meant that we had to cut almost $2 million to make for a balanced budget.”
One common misconception about the per pupil state aid increase is that schools receive that increase on the full amount of money in their general funds.
“A 2 percent increase on $71 million would be great, but that’s just not the case,” Martini said. “If we were to see no change in enrollment, our per pupil funding would see a $117 change that would add up to an increase of $829,958.”
The $117 increase brings the state funding the school receives to $5,948 per pupil, or about $54.74 million in all if enrollment were to stay the same. However, the $829,958 increase will likely be more like $408,434, because the per pupil increase is offset by a 75-student reduction anticipated by the district in the 2015-2016 school year.
In total, Forest Lake funding is made up of 80 percent state funds, 14 percent property taxes, 3 percent federal sources and 3 percent from other sources. The property tax number, making up just over $10 million, is lower than the state average of 18 percent and even lower than the metro average of 20.
“The bottom line here is that we are getting an increase of 2 percent on one-third of our money, and we are increasing spending by 3 percent on all of it,” Martini said. “We chose to make some hard cuts in order to achieve a balance.”
Forest Lake is not alone in its struggle. In the days following the budget discussion, news outlets across the metro featured stories about increases not keeping up with inflation.
“We are not alone,” Martini said. “The story is the same in Farmington. Buffalo chose not to cut, but rather draw down their fund balance by $2 million. Apple Valley-Eagan were also forced to make some tough cuts. There are similar stories across the metro and the state.”
Although the 2 percent increase is locked in for the next two years, it is not unheard of for the state to add some additional funds in the second year.
“We will be writing and talking to our legislators about that second-year increase,” Martini said. “We will be looking back to the late ‘90s and early 2000s and telling state officials that they did it then and they need to do it again now because we are hurting and we need the help. There are too many districts that are in cut mode.”