KELSEYVILLE — The Kelseyville Unified School District Board of Trustees unanimously approved a budget for the next fiscal year at a special meeting Tuesday night.
The approved 2011-2012 budget is approximately $13.5 million, as presented by chief financial officer Tiffany Kemp. This budget assumes “flat funding,” meaning the district expects to get the same amount of funding for this next fiscal year as it got for the current one.
In a PowerPoint presentation that gave a breakdown of the budget, Kemp indicated the district expects to conduct approximately $90,000 in deficit spending. Kemp said next year”s deficit spending is lower than it had been in the past.
Kemp showed the board a slide projecting what would have happened if the district had not approved its fiscal recovery plan back in March. For the current school year, the district would have finished with more than $480,000 in deficits.
Kemp projected the deficits would increase to more than $950,000 for next fiscal year and would increase to over $1.5 million the following year, which would result in a negative balance for the district.
Kemp indicated a relatively bleak financial picture in regards to obtaining money from the state government. She said it is possible education funds for all school districts could fall from $52.4 billion to $50.8 billion for next fiscal year.
Enrollment projections for next year are expected to decrease, meaning less money for the district, according to Kemp.
Board President Rick Winer said there are some huge assumptions with this budget, related to the uncertainty with the state budget.
Kemp said the district also budgeted some needed improvements at the schools, such as painting some schools and the replacement of locks, gravel and asphalt. The district must maintain its facilities to have access to certain money, she said.
In other actions, the board heard a proposal from school nurse Debbie Meadows and Jim Dowdy, an engineer/paramedic with Kelseyville Fire Protection District, about installing automatic external cardiac defibrillators at all district schools.
The proposal would cost the district $12,000 initially, with an annual cost of $1,200. The board asked Superintendent Dave McQueen and Kemp if the district had enough funds to accept the proposal outright, and they said it did not.
Meadows said the district could get funding through Medi-Cal. The board unanimously voted to move the discussion to a later meeting after Meadows had met with Medi-Cal about obtaining funds for the project.
Board member John DeChaine was absent because of personal reasons.
Kevin N. Hume can be reached at kevin.n.hume@gmail.com or call directly 263-5636 ext. 14.
