Kalispell schools plan budget cuts

The central office will have fewer employees. Coaches will be responsible for their own apparel. High school career centers no longer will operate under a single director.

Those are a few cost-saving measures outlined in Kalispell Public Schools’ 2011-12 budget. School board trustees reviewed the preliminary budget at their regular meeting Tuesday night.

The elementary district will operate with a $22.5 million budget this year, up from $21.5 million in 2010-11. The high school budget will be $27.8 million in 2011-12, up from $27.3 million last year.

School officials have worked for several months to balance the general fund budget, using a combination of reductions and one-time money to keep the elementary and high school budgets in the black.

Those reductions included eliminating positions in the central office. The district enrollment clerk and substitute teacher caller have been combined into a single job, as have the custodial supervisor and central supply clerk positions.

Combining four positions into two will save about $100,000, Assistant Superintendent Dan Zorn said. Zorn presented the budget information as interim district clerk, a position he stepped into at the beginning of the month after the former clerk, Todd Watkins, retired.

The activities budget was trimmed by $55,000. Those cuts include reduced travel and supply budgets and using some theater gate revenue to offset costs. School officials also eliminated a stipend for coaches’ apparel, which last year cost the district $6,200.

Not replacing three positions — two para-educators and the high school career center director — will save the district about $80,000.

DeAnn Thomas, the former career center director, retired June 30; the women who worked as assistants in the Flathead and Glacier high school offices will run the career centers with help from the guidance offices. Some money the district might have saved from Thomas’ retirement has been set aside for overtime for the career center managers and for contracting services schools may need for special career center activities, Zorn said.

The district saved another $40,000 in its energy budget thanks to Glacier High’s biomass boiler. And by eliminating 20 additional days from the alternative high school directors’ contracts, the district will save about $6,500.

Additional cuts would have been necessary had the board not voted this spring to use one-time money to balance the budget. Kalispell schools’ program retention dollars were set aside years ago by past school boards for use during the proverbial rainy day.

Trustees voted to use about $347,000 from the program retention fund to balance the 2011-12 budget. There is still about $54,000 in the high school fund and almost $281,000 in the elementary fund to be used for future budget shortfalls.

The school board is expected to approve a final budget Aug. 15.

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