Enrollment continues to be a concern, as Oregon-Davis school officials work on the corporation’s 2020 budget. Superintendent Dr. Don Harman says the school board held its public hearing on the proposed budget last week.
“The board asked some different questions,” Harman says. “I would say there was nothing really major asked. I think we did have a few patrons ask certain questions about enrollment. [Treasurer Nikki] Salazar did an excellent job and presented a Powerpoint. . . . She just went through the whole budget process and through each worksheet that had to be completed and turned in to the DLGF.”
Enrollment dropped by 200 students between the 2008-2009 school year and last school year. How many students a school corporation has on count day determines how much Education Fund money it gets from the state.
But Harman says O-D will see some cost savings, now that the state has reduced the amount of money that each school corporation has to pay into the Teachers’ Retirement Fund. “The Teachers’ Retirement Fund contribution rate decreased from 7.5 percent to 5.5 percent on July 1,” Harman explains. “And so our intent of the savings will be to utilize that towards teacher compensation, and that total cost savings has been determined to be $23,441.44.”
Overall, O-D’s 2020 budget proposal totals more than $8.7 million. Just over $3.6 million of that will be the Education Fund, while almost $3 million is being proposed for the Operations Fund. School officials are also proposing a budget of just over $879,000 out of the corporation’s property tax referendum revenues. “So we are monitoring what our revenue is and our expenditures, and we’re trying to work within our means,” Harman says.
The Oregon-Davis School Corporation’s 2020 budget will be up for adoption on October 14.
