David Means, the Juneau School District’s director of administrative services, delivered good news on top of more good news to the Juneau School Board during a weekend retreat.
He told the board that additional state funding triggered by a surprising growth in the district’s student population, along with some financial juggling, might give the district enough money to close its spending gap for student transportation.
The district was in a bind after Gov. Walker vetoed hundreds of thousands of dollars from its budget this summer. Some of that money was restored, but the district still had to figure out how to replace about $248,000 it intended to spend on its busing contract.
“We’re looking at carry-over money from last year, and we did reduce one school bus route,” David Means said. “So the bottom line is basically the reductions and that additional carry-over money, and additional revenue will offset Gov. Walker’s veto.”
Means said the kids who used the route the district scaled back are being picked up by other buses.
He added that his math is based on budget projections. He won’t know the exact balance until the school year is almost over.
Means first learned the district’s enrollment was higher than expected when the school year started in August.
Back then, he estimated there were about 230 more students than expected but he said that number could change.
He said he’d get more headcounts in October and those numbers would help determine how much additional money the state would give the district.
The numbers did change. Means said in the past couple of months, enrollment has fallen a little but there are still about 180 more students than originally expected.
“That will bring in, probably $1.4 million,” he said. “In addition to that, we’re finding the number of special education students who are receiving intensive levels of service has gone up from where we thought we would be. It’s gone up by 16 students.”
Means said the state gives school districts about 13 times more money for each intensive needs student than for other kids.
“So altogether on the state monies, we’re going to have about $2.6 million more than what we have budgeted for,” he said
Those additional students also mean some additional costs. Means said the district is paying for about three additional teaching positions and more paraeducators have to be hired to handle the increase in intensive needs students.
Means told board members he would send the district’s latest enrollment numbers to the state within the next week.
