Colfax school board approves fund balance spending to offset decreased enrollment

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX  —   The Colfax Board of Education has approved fund balance expenditures as a way to offset decreased enrollment.

Although it is not unusual for a school district to spend from the fund balance if necessary, two years ago, the Colfax school district experienced a decline in enrollment of 34 students, said Bill Yingst, district administrator, at the Colfax Board of Education’s May 16 meeting.

“The number is significant. It plugs directly into revenue limit worksheet formula,” he said

“It’s one thing to have a low year, but (state aid) is on a three-year rolling average. It stays in the formula for three years,” Yingst said.

To help offset decreases in enrollment, the state gives a “hold harmless” amount of money as a way to compensate for the loss of state aid, he said.

But that’s also a problem.

“They do bring up the dollar amount so you don’t fall off a cliff, so to speak, and lose all of the dollars. The flip side of it is, once you get your numbers back and the numbers increase, you lose your hold-harmless piece and you get back on the regular aid schedule,” Yingst said.

At that point, “it’s like a penalty, because aid is reduced. You have less aid than when you were under your normal level. It’s the way the formula system is,” he said.

“It’s kind of a game until you catch up and keep your numbers up for a few years, and then you will recover, but it could take four, five, six years to do that,” Yingst explained.

And that is why Yingst said he was asking for the authorization to spend from the fund balance, if necessary.

Last year, the school district underspent the budget by $110,000 because the reduction in state aid for the 34 lost students was expected to be $120,000 to $150,000, he said.

Unfortunately, the loss in state aid was closer to $150,000, Yingst noted.

To offset the loss, Yingst tried to keep some money back with the idea that the school district could overspend this year and spend into the fund balance.

“We got less aid last year, but we could get a little more this year,” Yingst said.

The $110,00 would be funded at the tertiary level, which is aided at 30 percent. If the school district spends $100,000, the district would get about $30,000 more in state aid next year, he said.

From the fund balance, “if you spend it, it’s gone, but in the next year’s aid, you would receive $30,000 or $31,000 more than you did this year,” Yingst said.

The Colfax Board of Education unanimously approved an authorization to spend out of the fund balance if necessary for the 2015-2016 school year.

Other business 

In other business, the Colfax Board of Education:

• Learned that the invoices included $72 for a Dunn County Sheriff’s Department deputy to be on duty at the Colfax High School prom April 30. Yingst had asked to have a deputy on duty following a prom shooting in Antigo a few weeks earlier.

• Learned from Trevor Hovde, Colfax Elementary principal, that the 389 students taking Accelerated Reader quizzes have an overall comprehension score of 91.7 percent. Three students at Colfax Elementary have read more than five million words this year; four students have read more than four million words; six students have read over three million words; 15 students have read over two million words; and 41 students have read over one million words.

• Learned that three teachers are planning to retire at the end of the school year: Billie Jo Fiege (first grade); Deb Mathson (second grade); Joe Doucette (physical education).

• Approved a list of summer school staff, bus drivers and swimming instructors.

• Approved student accident insurance with Student Assurance Services, Inc. The cost of group athletic coverage is $6,000 ($500 for the middle school and $5,500 for the high school). Last year the premium was $5,375, which had been the premium for quite a few years, Yingst said. All together there were claims of $4,700 last year, mostly due to athletic injuries, he said.