BATTLE GROUND SCHOOL District officials recently completed the district’s 2014-2015 budget. The front of Battle Ground High School, one of the district’s two regular high schools, is shown here.
According to MaryBeth Lynn, assistant superintendent of finance and school operations for the Battle Ground School District, “things are turning around for the district.”
Battle Ground School Board members Monty Anderson, Ken Root, Mavis Nickels, Jim Pegoraro and Stephanie McClintock recently voted unanimously to approve the district’s 2014-2015 budget. The general fund budget is made up of $137,807,661 in total revenues and other financing sources, and expenditures in the amount of $136,637,009.
Although Lynn said it is a challenge every year to put the district’s budget together, she said this budget came from a slightly different type of budget process. Although district staff still had to be fiscally conservative with the budget, there was some relief that came from the fact that the Washington State Legislature is starting to implement some of the aspects of the McCleary decision.
According to information from the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, on Jan. 5, 2012, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled in McCleary v. Washington that Washington state is not amply funding basic education under the state Constitution. The court has said it will monitor progress to ensure the funding recommendations are funded by 2018.
A few things from the McCleary decision that the Legislature has started to implement include some increased funding for materials, supplies and operating costs (MSOC) and an addition of $467,120 funding to transportation. The McCleary decision has also resulted in some additional funding for lab sciences in the high schools.
Even with the additional funding to transportation, Lynn said the district is still roughly $2 million “in the hole” with transportation. The district also recently saw a slight increase in their transportation contract, so Lynn said that $467,120 more than covered the increase and then provided a small amount of relief.
The implementation of some of the things from the McCleary decision allowed the district to more fully utilize levy funding. Especially since there are costs associated with all of the new education requirements, such as the implementation of Common Core State Standards, Smarter Balanced Assessments, the new Teacher/Principal Evaluation Project (TPEP) and others.
“All of the new programs create new expenses (for the district),” Lynn said. “TPEP requires professional development, Smarter Balanced requires new technology. The Smarter Balanced testing probably has the highest cost because technology changes so frequently.”
This (2014) is the first full calendar year that the district receives funds from four-year maintenance and operations levy passed in April 2013. The district will receive $10.8 million in levy funds for the second half of 2014, and $13.9 million for the first half of 2015, for a total of $24.7 million. During all of 2015, the district will collect $25.4 million in levy funds; $26.3 million in 2016; and $27.3 million in 2014.
With these levy funds, Lynn said the district is implementing everything that is on the strategic plan that was created by constituents in the district in the fall of 2012. The strategic plan consists of several things, including updating curriculum and staffing. Because of levy funds, Lynn said the district currently has full-time middle school counselors. The district also recently applied for a grant that would help to fund primary school counselors, but Lynn said they won’t know if they received the grant or not until after the school year has already started.
Even though the district didn’t face any huge challenges with this coming school year’s budget, Lynn did say she is nervous about the growth that could occur in the south part of the district.
“Pleasant Valley is full, Glenwood and Laurin are close to full, I have some funding set aside for growth there,” Lynn said. “River HomeLink has also seen a lot of growth because they are implementing the district’s online program.”
Budgeted staffing has remained relatively consistent in the district over the past couple of years. Full-time equivalent certificated employees were budgeted at 843.779 for the 2013-2014 school year, the 2014-2015 school year is budgeted at 839.685 certificated employees. Full-time equivalent classified employees were budgeted at 398.927 for the 2013-2014 year, the 2014-2015 year has them budgeted at 408.282.
Salaries for certificated staff for the 2014-2015 year are budgeted at $55,013,759 and salaries for classified staff are budgeted at $16,030,490.
All in all, Lynn said things are looking up for the district.
“We’re on the upswing, I think things are turning around for the district,” she said. “I think our new leadership shares and understands the importance of being a good steward and properly using the public’s money.”
AT A GLANCE
BATTLE GROUND PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Source of funds for public schools
• State funding – general purpose (i.e. apportionment)
• State funding – designated (i.e. special education, transportation, Learning Assistance Program (LAP), English Language Learners (ELL), gifted)
• Local funding – general purpose (i.e. levy, fees)
• Local funding – designated (i.e. school lunch, bonds)
• Federal funding – designated (i.e. Title I, special education)
• Federal funding – general purpose (i.e. federal forest)
General fund revenue budget
Revenue category Budget Example of revenue sources
Property tax $24,780,912 Levy, timber excise
Local non-tax $6,585,683 Interest, donations, fees, fines
State, general purpose $79,591,127 Apportionment, levy equalization, CTE
State, special purpose $18,379,030 Special education, LAP, bilingual, transportation, highly capable
Federal, general $1,000 Federal forests
Federal, special $8,455,409 Special education, USDA, Title programs, admin match
Revenue, other districts $14,500 Cooperative agreements, non-high
Total $137,807,661
