Illinois Valley News

A 12-year trend of declining enrollment continues to batter the Three Rivers School District (TRSD) budget, which has been approved, with consideration of adoption set for June 21.

The TRSD Budget Committee approved the proposed $67.6 million all-funds budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year during its Wednesday, May 19 meeting at the administrative office in Murphy.

That is up from the $65.3 million all-funds budget adopted for the 2009-10 fiscal year, which will end June 30. However, the general fund dropped slightly from $42.5 million in the current fiscal year 2010 to $42.4 million for the next.

Ten persons sit on the budget committee. They are TRSD directors Robert Litak, Jim Weaver, Leslie Meier, Dave Strahan and Ron Lengwin; and citizens-at-large Graham Barker, Kevin Marr, Linda DuBose, Tammy Canady and Bill Bonville.

DuBose was elected committee chairman and Marr vice chairman during a May 10 meeting.

Enrollment at TRSD peaked in 1995 at 6,641 students. It plunged to 5,279 in 2008 and 5,153 in 2009, and has been on a downward trend since 1998.

Despite that, enrollment figures at the three Cave Junction public schools has held relatively steady.

• Illinois Valley High School went from 408 students in 2008 to 369 in 2009.
• Lorna Byrne Middle School showed a slight increase, from 261 in 2008 to 271 in 2009.
• Evergreen Elementary School showed 475 students both years.

All figures are culled from enrollment at the schools as of Sept. 30 of those years.

Enrollment figures are particularly pertinent, because state support is based on them. TRSD“s proposed 2010-11 budget was based on state funding of approximately $6,674 per student for an estimated 5,847 students, resulting in general grant funding of some $39 million.

Included in it is a budgeted beginning fund balance of $1.5 million. That figure stood at $2.9 million for the 2009-10 fiscal year.

The overall budget is based on eight reduced school days next year, and is complicated by the loss of federal stimulus funds being used as part of state payments to school districts. As a result, TRSD will lose more than $800,000 in revenue.

The loss is slightly offset by an estimated $1.1 million in interest earned on TRSD cash accounts and Education Service District flow-through monies. And $500,000 in federal stimulus money is included in the budget.

Personnel costs comprise $32.1 million, or 76 percent of the new budget. Transportation costs are set at $4.4 million, or 10 percent.

The general fund includes a reduction of 5.6 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) licensed personnel and 4.38 classified personnel. Also included is a freeze in administrative, licensed, classified and confidential staff Cost-of-Living Adjustments and a freeze on administrative and certified insurance costs.

Contingency funds adopted for the current fiscal year totaled $1.1 million, but that figure has dropped to $356,000 for 2010-11. That includes a savings of $76,850 added to the general fund contingency due to additional decreases in FTE jobs.

Also reflected in the budget are increases on roll-up expenses, including added costs for transportation, utility expenses and fees paid to major contractors.

The budgeted ending fund balance is $500,000, unchanged from 2009-10.

Budgets for Cave Junction schools are fairly consistent with previous figures. Evergreen Elementary stayed at around $1.8 million. LBMS went from $1.3 million in the adopted 2009-10 fiscal year budget to $1.2 million for the next. IVHS decreased a tad from $2.3 million to $2.29 million.

The approved budget is to be considered for adoption during the June 21 TRSD board meeting, which will take place at the district office at 8550 New Hope Road near Murphy at 7 p.m. A public hearing will be held prior to the meeting, at 6:50 p.m.

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