Preliminary 2022-23 budget to see 12.44 million deficit, mostly from building fund

By Joseph Back

South Washington County Schools just reviewed and approved its preliminary budget for 2022-23. Presented at the June 16 school board meeting by ISD 833 district finance and operations director Dan Pyan, the budget will see a sizable deficit— to the tune of over $12.4 million dollars. Much of that, is form spending in the building construction fund.

The building construction fund, which is restricted, would see $13.35 million spent with just $30,000 in projected revenues for the year, thereby resulting via simple addition and subtraction in $13.5 million overall expenditures for this year’s budget with regard to construction. Pyan led things out at the meeting.

“School districts are required to have their revenue and expenditure budgets approved by June 30 fo the preceding school year,” he said. “Our department has prepared the 2022-23 budget for school board approval.”

Going on to state that the budget included a number of different parts including the nutrition fund, general fund, and debt service fund (among many others), Pyan stated total revenues as being $336,594,272 in revenues and $349,039,173 in expenditures.

“This budget we project would leave our general fund balance at about 7.2 percent,” he said. “It’s a conservative budget.” Pyan then made brief remarks praising the budget team and asked for board approval. “With that I ask for approval,” he told the board June 16. With motion made by Pat Driscoll and seconded by Simi Patniak, the budget was approved by a unanimous board vote, otherwise common in local governments generally. With simple addition and subtraction of revenues and expenditures making for over $12.4 million more in purchases than income ($12,444,901, to be exact), more budget details are contained in the budget packet.

Rounding out the sources of revenue with regard to state aid, the basic formula for what is deemed “general education aid” for 2022 -23 is reached by taking the formula allowance (set at the

See BUDGET Page 2

District finance and operations director Dan Pyan opened his budget presentation June 15 with a scuba diving joke, on why divers put their gear on and fall backwards. “If they fell forward they’d still be in the boat,” he said. Image from SoWashCo YouTube channel. BUDGET

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State Capitol) and then multiplying it by the “adjusted pupil unit.”

For ISD 833, the formula allowance this budget cycle was estimated at $6,863 per student/ pupil unit, which when used to divide the total figure of $135,336,021 in basic formula aid, comes out to a total “pupil unit” base figure of 19,720, this being rounded up to the nearest whole number.The projected headcount for 2022-23 in South Washington County, is 18,631, numbered from pre-K through grade 12. Due to budget calculations, adjusted pupil units may but do not necessarily have to equal a one-to-one ratio with actual headcount.

Alongside the basic formula in state aid, meanwhile, is compensatory aid, driven by those students on free or reduced lunch and required to be used “to meet the educational needs of students whose progress is below their appropriate age level.

Dividing the total in projected compensatory aid ($2,223,642) by the dollar value assigned to each pupil eligible for free or reduced lunch ($692), brings out the number of students on free or reduced lunch as 3,214 in ISD 833, or approximated 16.3 percent of students, rounded to the nearest decimal.

Also calculated in the total figure of general state aid (being $152,530,120 for the coming year) is local optional revenue, which allows the district to claim $724 of additional revenue per pupil unit” and thus to offset local taxpayer contributions by almost $2 million ($1,916,926). With projected operating capital at $2,916,046 for the 2022-23 fiscal year and a number of smaller aids including alternative attendance adjustment (for pupils living in ISD 833 but not attending district schools), gifted and talented aid (to provide programming for said students), English Learner aid (projected at $550,323 for the coming fiscal year), and Extended Time aid (for students above 1.0 in daily membership, up to 1.2), state aid dollarss supply an overall total of 43.7 percent of the district’s current budget.

A more complete budget breakdown including different spending categories is available at sowashco. org in the June 16, 2022 school board meeting packet, under item 8.2.

A graphic representation of funding sources in ISD 833 for the coming school year. Image from June 16 school board meeting packet.

A brief summary of the budget was including in the June 16 meeting packet showing revenues and expenditures for ISD 833. Image from June 16 School Board meeting packet.

A graphic representation of the district expenditures by percentage, adding up to $15,047.77, including state aids. Image from June 16 School Board meeting packet.