Schools close in on final budget

The last several months have been a struggle as Kalispell Public Schools administrators have worked to build the district’s 2010-11 budget.

A dismal economy, failed levy requests and the looming threat of a funding cliff have made creating the budget a complicated process.

But on Tuesday the school board got a look at the final budget it will vote on next week.

Kalispell schools will have a $48.8 million budget in 2010-11 — almost $21.6 million in the elementary district and nearly $27.3 million in the high school district. The budget increased by less than 1 percent from 2009-10.

Part of that increase is due to contractual pay raises for teachers. Almost $29 million of the $33.2 million general fund budget (87 percent) pays wages and benefits.

This year’s budget also includes raises for four administrators. Most administrators agreed not to take pay raises this year to help the district balance an $819,000 deficit. The move saved $18,563 in the high school district, which faced a $216,000 shortfall, and about $18,000 in the elementary district, which was short about $603,000.

But some administrators will make more than they did last year.

Superintendent Darlene Schottle will make $118,094 in 2010-11, up from last year’s $118,053 salary. Assistant Superintendent Dan Zorn will make $97,532, up from last year’s $95,423 salary.

The increases each received are stipends for having doctorates. The board last year approved giving Schottle the same doctoral stipend teachers receive. Zorn earned his doctorate this spring.

Human Resources Director Karen Glasser will make $84,928 this year, a 6.3 percent increase from her $79,888 salary in 2009-10.

The raises aren’t just at the central administration level; Peterson Elementary Principal Rick Anfenson received a 6.4 percent raise this year. He will make $79,718, up from last year’s $74,889.

Anfenson is the lone building administrator in the district who will receive a raise.

Glasser’s and Anfenson’s raises are due to contract provisions, district clerk Todd Watkins said. After working five years in the district, building principals and central office personnel receive an approximately $5,000 salary bump.

Anfenson was hired at a salary about $5,000 less than principals with five years’ experience would make, Watkins explained, and Schottle offered the same contractual benefit to Glasser.

Besides the raises that were suspended for most administrators, the district made several other cuts, few of which involved laying off employees.

The district eliminated $30,000 from the operations and grounds budget, which did require a staff reduction. It also did not renew a half-time speech-language pathologist contract, which takes the staff down to its 2008-09 level but saves $18,000.

The cut to operations has impacted the remaining maintenance staff’s ability to cover all of the district’s properties, Watkins said.

“Our groundspeople are struggling at Hedges and Elrod,” he said. “We brought our high school team over to Hedges last week to get back on track.”

Snow removal and preparing for this fall’s athletic competitions could be challenging for the grounds staff, he added.

The district will save about $19,000 in the elementary budget thanks to late resignations among classified personnel, Watkins said. The district has been able to hire replacements whose salaries are lower than the retirees.

The budget’s impacts on taxpayers aren’t yet known, Watkins said. The district still is waiting on information from the state and on tax collection information from Flathead County.

But unless the taxable value of the district goes down, those numbers won’t have a tax impact, Watkins said.

“Taxes should be the same or less, unless the bottom falls out of taxable value,” he said.

Property taxes levied by the school district will decrease by seven or eight mills because a high school building reserve levy, which taxpayers supported for nearly three decades, no longer will be on the books.

Voters last fall voted to renew the $2.8 million elementary building reserve levy for five years but rejected a $4.1 million high school levy request.

Building reserve money is separate from the general fund; it is intended specifically for building and technology projects. The district may consider requesting a high school levy again this year.

“We need that desperately,” Watkins said. “Flathead High School needs a gob of attention. CTA [Architects] told us five to 10 years ago we had to put $5 [million] to $10 million into the building to keep it functional.”

The decision about how to address building needs still is months off, but trustees will decide whether to approve the 2010-11 budget at its regular August meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Kalispell Middle School library.

The general fund budget will be available on the district’s website before the meeting, probably by the end of the week, Watkins said. It will be at www.sd5.k12.mt.us; click on “Business & Finance.”

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.