On Monday, the Kenai Peninsula Borough School Board will review the possibility of a $1 million reduction in funding for Fiscal Year 2016 if student enrollment does not increase by October 23.
Assistant Superintendent Dave Jones said as of September 28th the district has about 98 students less than their enrollment projection, which could result in a $800,000 State Foundation funding reduction.
Jones: “We’re kind of a unique state in that we are funded for the kids that attend the school during a 20-day count period during our fiscal year. So we always try to make an estimate of what our enrollment will be for those 20 days and that’s what we base our budget on and you wait until the end of October and that’s when we find out what our actual budget and revenue from the state will be.”
State funding also dictates the amount allocated by the Kenai Peninsula Borough; although the borough funded the district to the cap, if the state foundation drops, that could mean an additional $184,000 loss in funding from the borough.
School Board members are also scheduled to discuss the district’s pool use and fee schedule which Jones says might play into an additional revenue for the general fund.
Jones: “Currently the fees that are charged for the use of the pools are put back into the funds to address the costs of the pool. So the question is, one: how much would the increases raise, how significant would that be? And two: if we do increase it, do we put those back into the pool or do we put them over into the general fund for usage.”
The School Board is slated to discuss these topics and others under the broad topic of the Fiscal Year 2017 at 2:30 pm Monday, October 5, in the Borough Assembly Chambers in Soldotna.
