The Cheney School District’s enrollment counts have flattened out over the past several months — but that still means the number of full-time equivalent students and actual headcounts are running above what was budgeted and above last year’s totals.
A report given to the board of directors at their May 28 meeting showed FTE numbers for May at 4,043.53 students, a decrease of two students from both the April and March figures and 16 from the February count. Kassidy Probert, the district’s executive director of finance, said overall the actual FTE figures are exceeding 2013-2014 budgeted numbers by 70 FTEs.
All of the counts are over 2012-2013 school year figures by an average of 129.31 students with May’s count the highest difference at 145.41 FTEs. As for headcounts, actual bodies in seats, May’s 4,203 students reflected a decrease off 22 students from January’s high of 4,225, but 123 more students than through May 2013.
The increase in FTEs has boosted the district’s state funding by $300,000 over what was originally projected for this year’s budget. The flip side of that, Probert said, was the district was at about 65 percent of what they had projected for salaries through April, and would likely finish the year slightly over budget due to hiring paraprofessionals to handle the enrollment increase.
The district’s fund balance, cash on hand, was about $4.3 million or roughly 10 percent of the total yearly budget.
“This is the highest our fund balance has been since 2012 when it was $4.5 million through April,” Probert said.
In other district news, the board unanimously approved an Information Technology Department request to surplus 579 computer equipment items no longer deemed useful. The items ranged from inkjet printers to computers to cameras.
The board also named Director James Whiteley to be the district’s representative to the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, and approved a resolution delegating authority to the WIAA to “control, supervise and regulate interscholastic activities consistent with the rules and regulations of the WIAA” for the district’s middle and high schools.
The board also approved re-authorization of a contract with Myers-Stevens as the district’s student accident insurance carrier. Myers-Stevens has held the contract for 11 years.
Probert told the board he contacted the district’s insurance representative, AIG, as well as other area districts to find out if there were other insurers providing comparable coverage at less cost. All his inquiries ended up recommending Myers-Stevens.
School district directors Rick Mount and Marcie Estrellado were absent from the meeting due to work conflicts.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
Reader Comments(0)