Kalispell schools outline $76.8 million budget

Flathead County’s largest school district will operate on $76.8 million in the 2016-17 school year.

This represents budgeted and cash funds in the elementary and high school districts.

Kalispell Public Schools’ board of trustees approved an elementary budget of $28 million and a high school budget of $28.6 million.

Compared to the last school year, budgeted funds have decreased. The elementary district budget decreased by about 2.4 percent, or $694,000. The high school budget decreased by roughly 3.69 percent, or $1 million.

District Clerk Gwyn Andersen said the decreases reflect changes in how money is expended, debt service and if there are levies, for example.

The largest budgeted fund is the general fund, which is up from last year because of more state dollars tied to an enrollment increase. A majority of general fund expenditures ­­— 88 percent — go toward staff salaries and benefits.

Both budgets also contain numerous cash funds, which are not directly generated by taxpayer money.

On the elementary side, there is $13.6 million in cash funds related to things such as student activities, the district’s self-funded health insurance and miscellaneous programs.

The high school district contains $6.5 million in cash funds, including the district’s food service, traffic education, student activities and endowment funds, among others. One of the cash funds contains about $1.8 million in an interlocal agreement fund, which includes a combination of elementary and high school district funds primarily from end-of-year money accumulated over four years.

Interlocal funds may be spent any time throughout the year for any purpose with board action in either the high school or elementary district. In the 2014-15 school year, the district used some of the interlocal money to purchase land for a new elementary school site on Airport Road.

The district’s primary revenue source is state funding. Money also comes from local taxpayers. Andersen said the amount of taxes collected is down by 1.67 percent in the elementary district and 13 percent in the high school district.

What plays a big part in the decrease is the district’s recent decision to refinance bonds amounting to $12.42 million, which were used to build Glacier High School and a commons addition to Flathead High School a decade ago.

“We have predicted a savings of about $1.2 million that won’t be collected from taxpayers,” Andersen said, noting that the final interest rate was 1.44 percent.

The tax decrease is also due to an increase in state revenue as a result of changes in legislation.

Taxpayers in the elementary district will generate a total of $8.2 million, about 29 percent of the total budget.

Taxpayers living in the high school district will contribute $9 million, approximately 31 percent of the total budget.

The finalized budget, approved by the board of trustees Tuesday, comes on the cusp of a $25.2 million elementary bond issue and a $28.8 million high school bond issue to go before voters in the fall.

If approved, the bonds will pay for a new elementary school and renovations to five existing elementary schools, Flathead and Glacier high schools, Linderman Education Center, H.E. Robinson Agricultural Education Center along with improvements to Legends Stadium and parking at Flathead.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.