By luther dorr
Mille Lacs County Times

 Another year of declining enrollment forced changes in the Milaca School District budget for 2008-09 but it appears expenditures will be under budget.

Business director Bill Holmgren gave that message to school board members at their July 21 meeting.

With totals not quite final, expenditures for 2008-09 are about 98 percent of what was budgeted, Holmgren told board members.

Earlier that day the figure was at 97.2 percent but a bill of $70,000 for workmen’s comp was received and that pushed the figure to 98 percent.

In an interview the next day Holmgren said the budget looks OK for 2009-10, although some adjustments may have to be made again if enrollment continues to decline, as is likely.

The budget for 2009-10 was prepared with an estimate of 1,834 students and right now there are 1,826 registered. If there are eight fewer students than expected that will mean about $60,000 less in revenue than budgeted.

An operating levy, which a high percentage of school districts in Minnesota have voted in favor or the last few years, failed last November in Milaca.

That would have helped, Holmgren said, but the biggest problem he sees for school districts around the state is that the state is not funding the amounts those districts need.

Milaca will experience a one-percent decrease in state aid in 2009-10 and then no increase for the next three years through the 2012-2013 school year, according to Holmgren.

This coming year’s decrease would have been greater except for three factors, Holmgren said. They are:

•The state cut funds but the district will use federal stimulus money to help make some of that deficit.

•The district will receive extra dollars for special education and that money will cover some unreimbursable costs, such as benefits.

•There will be extra money for Title 1 programs because of federal stimulus money.

“Right now, because of some stimulus money, we have an excess of $100,000,” Holmgren said. “But we will be looking at a half million [dollars] in cuts next spring.”

The budget for 2009-10 will definitely be refigured after school starts, Holmgren said.

The general fund, where expenditures were approximately $15.23 million in ’08-09, looks good right now, he said, but will be affected if enrollment declines, as is expected.

The food service fund shows $2,000 on the plus side after ’08-09, that coming on the heels of the year before when the food service budget was overspent by about $50,000.

Lunch prices will be up 10 cents per meal this fall and that will increase revenue by about $20,000.

“Our goal is to get [the food service fund] out of the hole this year,” Holmgren said.

The food service fund is about $34,000 in the red at this point but Holmgren expects a swing of about $40,000 next school year that would put the fund in the black.

He said the community service fund should be in good shape in 2009-10.