vision2020
Re: School Budget
A short answer
Enrollment to Moscow schools has been declining for 5 or more years, @ 50
students per year. State funding is based on enrollment, so MSD has fewer
state dollars available today than they would have had if enrollment had
been stable.
Recently, the Board of Trustees hired more teaching (certified) staff
without having any funds to pay for salaries or benefits. Other staff,
(administrative and classified) were also hired.
The board found itself in financial trouble this past fall, in part due to
the hiring of too many staff and in part to the state of Idaho holding back
some funding.
The board asked the voters to increase the local supplemental levy
(currently at 4.5 million dollars) by 2 million and was told no by 73%.
John
John and Laurie Danahy
jdanahy@turbonet.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Hill" <paulhill@moscow.com>
To: <vision2020@moscow.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2002 5:54 AM
Subject: School Budget
> Being relatively new to the area, can someone fill me in on how the school
> funding issue came to be? A 2-million dollar shortfall is a lot of money;
> is the budget suddenly different now than in past years? Did the state
cut
> funding by that amount, and why? Were there some decisions made that
> resulted in a shortfall? The recent funding initiative was defeated by a
> huge margin-- was this a reaction to some percieved mismanagement?
> Needless to say, I'm ignorant of the history of this issue. If there's a
> newspaper summary or other publication, please point me in that direction.
> Thanks--
>
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