District to receive additional funding from more enrolled students in 2018-19

Prior Lake American

The Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools will receive almost $203,000 more than expected during the 2018-19 fiscal year as a result of more students being enrolled in the district.

The district had budgeted for a total enrollment of 8,816 students but the actual enrollment is 8,836 students. The district is projecting that it will grow to 9,919 enrolled students in the 2022-23 school year.

District Business Services Executive Director Julie Cink presented the updated budget to the Prior Lake-Savage Area School Board during a work session on Monday.

The updated $99.3 million budget for the 2018-19 fiscal year, which ends in June, included additional revenues of almost $585,000 but also included additional expenditures of more than $2.4 million, meaning the district is planning to dip into reserves and spend almost $1 million of its unassigned general fund balance.

The district received $19,000 more of federal funding than expected, as well as almost $363,000 in grants. One grant of more than $13,400 will go toward mental health initiatives in the district, including partnering with Growing Through Grief, a program to support students who have experienced the death of someone close to them.

More than $316,000 in grant funds from the Association of Metropolitan School Districts will be used for improving safety at the new Bridges Area Learning Center near Twin Oaks Middle School in Prior Lake. The alternative high school building, which is under construction and expected to be complete in fall 2019, was part of a $109.3 million referendum approved in November 2017.

Almost $1 million of the $2.4 million in additional expenditures for the budget comes from carryover funds, or unused money from the previous budget that was moved to the current budget.

The new spending includes the purchase of a $60,000 school bus, which the Prior Lake-Savage Area School Board approved in October to address complaints from parents regarding overcrowding on the bus routes.

In 2018, the highest load count was 68, which was below capacity but did mean students were sometimes sitting three to a seat, Operations and Transportations Director Jim Dellwo said in October.

The additional expenditures also include $90,000 to install a new sound system at the Prior Lake High School. The installation of the system had originally been included in the referendum projects before later being removed. Despite not being included in the referendum, Cink said the new system was a project that needed to be done at the high school.

More than $42,500 of additional expenditures was used for attendance and boundary changes. The school board approved temporary boundary changes for elementary schools in March 2018 to address overcrowded classes ahead of the construction of a new elementary school, set to open in fall 2020.

The estimated overall reserve balance for June 2019 is more than $12.3 million, or about 13 percent of the district’s total expenditures. The district has a policy to keep the balance at anywhere from 8 to 12 percent.

“We’re still at 13.44 percent, so we’re still over our fund balance policy even though we’re spending it down,” Cink said. “Overall, our fund balance is still a very positive amount.”

The district is expected to spend the fund balance down to 10 percent over the next five years, Cink said.