The school district’s budget will have a surplus of nearly $1
million and a healthy $3.3 million cushion by 2010, district staff
reported.
Gilroy – The school district’s budget will have a surplus of nearly $1 million and a healthy $3.3 million cushion by 2010, district staff reported.
At current levels of revenue and expenditure, the Gilroy Unified School District will sock away about $1 million each year, Assistant Superintendent of Administrative Services Steve Brinkman said at a June 21 meeting. The projected surpluses will help the Gilroy Unified School District save more than the state-mandated 3 percent reserve, which it fell below earlier this year in part because of 7 percent raises negotiated with teachers, classified employees and administrators. According to district numbers, the general fund will exceed those reserves, which calculate to about $1.5 million for Gilroy schools, by $888,852 for next year and by $3.3 million in 2010.
The district budget had been below the reserve by $106,000 as of the last budget revision in March. However, at the close of the financial year in late June, the budget had a $24,000 surplus thanks to unexpected additional funding from the state and a district spending freeze enacted in January.
“We’re projecting a small, little surplus this year but I think that’s a tremendous achievement considering we gave basically a 7 percent compensation increase when we only had about five available,” Brinkman said.
The projected increases in the district budget are partly caused by an expected 1.5 percent jump in student enrollment, Brinkman said. Of the about $76 million the district projects to spend in 2007-2008, about 80 percent is allotted to paraprofessional, teacher and administrator salaries. Budgets for specific school sites remained roughly the same.
The budgeting, which does not include future salary negotiations, are meant to allot as much money as possible to worthy projects while hedging against unforeseen expenditures, said Keiko Mizuno, director of business services.
“When (the surplus is) too high, it doesn’t mean it’s good to me because we’re not trying to make money for the school district,” she said. “This is a school district run by taxpayer’s tax dollars and it’s just a matter of how we put the resources into the best way possible to educate our students.”
