District 196 Board Waits to See Dayton's Budget Plan

When the District 196 School Board met on Monday evening, the conversation focused less on district news and more about the upcoming budget plan newly elected Gov. Mark Dayton is set to announce Tuesday morning.

District 196 Superintendent Jane Berenz presented an update of the district budget process and said that the district has made a number of estimates based on a projected Dayton budget. "At the beginning of the school year, we were anticipating that money from the state would decline about 7 perce t in the upcoming school year," she said. "But we're currently expecting a reduction in funding for K-12 in the range of 2.5 - 5 percent."

She noted that even after the governor announces his budget, it still has to work its way through the legislature. "We are in the unfortunate situation of having to approve our budget before we know the final amount of aid we'll get from the state. We're forced to plan for a scenario that may or may not happen as expected."

Once Berenz has examined the proposed Dayton budget, she’ll make recommendations to the school board. The recommendations will then be presented to district teachers in early March. The proposal will then be open for public discussion later that month.

The reduction in state funding for schools is the biggest financial uncertainty facing District 196 administrators as they work their way through the budget process. Berenz said many of the other factors influencing the district’s bottom-line are stable or only increasing slightly year-to-year.

"The state pays a certain amount per student and the good news is that we anticipate a stable enrollment for the next five years," said Berenz. "Our enrollment in the district increased by four students this year. I don't know who those students are, but we are appreciative."

The district has also had a great deal of success controlling its largest expenditure - employees' salaries and benefits. Currently, the district spends 84 percent of its general fund expenditures on its employees and Berenz said that the various unions and bargaining groups who have negotiated new contracts since September 2010 have agreed to contracts that offer no increase in wages or salary schedules.

The board also heard a preliminary 2011-12 capital expenditure budget presentation from Director of Finance and Operations Jeff Solomon. The district works on this budget earlier than the budget for other funds because much of the money is spent in the summer.

Solomon said that budget was designed to provide future flexibility as the district faces an uncertain funding environment. “A great deal of the capital expenditure budget is fixed costs or is money that is spent as part of a longer-term contract. So we have worked to give ourselves as much flexibility as possible in this financially challenging period.”

Solomon presented the first reading of the budget Monday night and a second reading with a more detailed budget presentation will take place on April 25.

Shane Schmeichel presented an update of the District 196’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) program during Monday’s meeting. Schmeichel is the district magnet school specialist and he announced the STEM program has won a $20,000 from Project Lead The Way. He is also awaiting notification on several other possible grants, including a $5,000 Kern Family Foundation Grant.

The next regularly scheduled District 196 School Board meeting takes place on Monday, Feb. 28 at Dakota Ridge School.