On the whole, there was a more upbeat tone to the MUSD Budget Report than has been the case in recent years. Reporter Dan Stork attended a workshop session on the subject, and lists some ups and downs…
In a workshop study session preceding the regular meeting of the Morongo Unified School District Board of Education, Assistant Superintendent Dave Price briefed the board on the second interim budget report for the current school year. He told the Board that projected revenues are pretty closely tracking the first interim report that was produced in October. Deviations along the way in projected revenues have been due to frequent changes in the “calculators” that have been issued for implementing the Local Control Funding Formula, Governor Brown’s innovation in school funding planning. Special education funding had been affected by several hundreds of thousands of dollars by federal sequestration, despite early assurances that that would not be the case. The amount projected for teachers’ salaries has increased by about $1 million, due to the addition of teachers to meet class size reduction goals. Enrollment losses in the east end of the District are starting to be balanced by growth in the west end, which augurs well for enrollment-based funding. The projected budget shows about $10 million more in expenditures than in revenues for the current year, with a corresponding decline in the ending fund balance. Despite that, the tone of Price’s report was more positive than it has been in recent years. He said that cash flow is good, since the state has cut way back on deferrals of funds owed to districts, and the projections for the following two years show the draw-down in the ending fund balance leveling off.
SCHOOL BOARD GETS UPBEAT BUDGET REPORT
