School budget shows minimal increase

The Whitefish School District general fund 2015 fiscal year budget is expected to increase less than 1 percent from the previous year.

General fund revenue increased about $102,000 while budget obligations for salaries and benefits increased by more than $110,000 for the preliminary budget.

Salaries and benefits make up 88 percent of the district’s general fund budget.

The budget figures in an increase in salary for both certified and classified staff.

The base salary for teachers is set to increase by 1 percent along with increases for longevity, plus a $20 per month increase in the district contribution for health insurance.

The base salary for classified salaries is set to increase by 50 cents per hour plus $20 per month increase in the district contribution for health insurance.

District Clerk Danelle Reisch said the shortfall forced the district’s administrative staff to look at the budget line item by line item to find savings.

“Because we were adamant that we didn’t want to lose any staffing, I pulled everything out of the budget that wasn’t staffing and then we looked at it,” she said. “We threw everything up on the board and asked, ‘Do we need to keep it, can we lose it or can we reduce it?’”

Superintendent Kate Orozco said tight budgets force spending to be examined.

“These budget times force you to answer all that we think is important,” she said. “We focus on the things we care about most — kids, teachers and the learning.”

The elementary district general fund budget is $7.36 million, an increase of about $40,000 over the previous year.

The high school district general fund budget is $4.3 million, which includes an increase of about $63,000 over the previous year.

Reisch is hoping for savings in the utility budgets. The budget anticipates about $22,000 in savings at the middle school and about $12,000 in savings at the high school.

“I looked at the last five years and felt we could scrape a little bit of money from those budgets,” she said. “I’m hopeful that with the boiler work we’ve done at the middle and high schools, we’ll have some savings.”

The sale of the Whitefish Independent High School building is expected to save the district money on operational and maintenance costs. Savings of about $17,000 are projected for the fiscal year, which is a 50 percent reduction for that fund. The independent school program will be relocated into the new high school building in the fall.