Tri-City Sun

The upcoming general fund budget was a topic of discussion at the April 19 meeting of the Midland Public School District.

Assistant Superintendent Brian Brutyn presented the board with a presentation and said that with their general fund and their reserve amounts, the district is in a position of strength financially.

The district has been sectioning off dollars each year to save for upcoming expenses like technology replacements and bus replacements, so some of their general funds are assigned, which will also aid them when those expenses come up.

“Just a reminder for you all what the intent of this budget workshop is,” said Brutyn. “The intention of the next 25 minutes is for me to give you a history of where the public has been financial. We focused really on the last 10 to 15 years so you can get a picture of where we’ve been and where we got to currently.”

The general fund has been continually increasing since 2015 and now they are expecting to level off on those increases in their general fund. Brutyn was not concerned about this, as times and conditions always change and so do budgets. Putting less in savings does not necessarily mean the district is losing money, rather that they are spending it on various items that same year instead of saving to spend in future years.

“It's also to give you our very first insights into what we think next year's revenues and expenditures may look like by this time in April,” said Brutyn. “We only have a certain amount of information from our legislature on what we think revenues are going to look like, and we are right in the middle of predicting what our expenditures are as well, too. So, we'll give you a bit of a window into what our predictions are for next year. And we will also have opportunities for you all to weigh in at certain points on certain budget priority areas.”

The board has also approved making employee raises contingent on the health of the district’s finances, which safeguards them in the event of dwindling finances.  The district will continue to examine its compensation plans as they take up the majority of its expenses and will present its budget at its June 5 board meeting.

Another reason the district is in a good financial position is the improvements in their enrollment changes. While the district is losing approximately 30 students a year in total enrollment, a decade ago that figure hovered at 200.

The district expects to get an increase in state funding as there is a five percent increase in per pupil funding making its way through the state now, which will help them address gaps that come up as they use up the last of their COVID relief funds.

Brutyn added that the numbers are just projections for now as they are still in the current school year and haven’t received any updates from the state.