Medical Lake School District reveals 2013-14 budget

The Medical Lake School District will be working with a $19.15 million budget in the 2013-14 school year.

At the July 23 board meeting, the budget was passed unanimously. Included is $18.75 million in general fund revenues, which increased by $1.25 million over the previous year, largely due to state funding increases.

In addition to the increased state funding, the district received $260,000 more than it expected in Impact Aid revenue last year. The district noted that sequestration cuts were still in effect, and could play a large role in whether all of that particular funding will come through.

“It’s the biggest unknown in our budget,” business manager Don Johnson said. “We’ve missed it low and missed it high.”

Included in the budget are allocations for all-day kindergarten, something the district has been working on for quite some time. Although it wasn’t funded by the state, the district made some adjustments in order to make it a reality.

Much of Medical Lake’s capital projects have been completed, and the capital fund balance is projected to drop to a mere $3,000 at the end of this year once all payments are finalized.

Johnson also said the district’s levy rate had fallen to $.70 per $1,000 assessed value, the lowest it’s been in three or four years.

One area of the budget that should see some relief is the ASB fund for each school. When faced with declining revenues, the district stopped uniform rotations for sports. As such, Johnson said sports teams made an effort to purchase their own uniforms, which eroded their budgets. For this upcoming school year, the uniform rotations have been restored.

“The good news is we’ve weathered one of the worst recessions in the history of our country,” Superintendent Dr. Pam Veltri said.

James Eik can be reached at james@cheneyfreepress.com.