Pandemic has left unknowns for next year's school budget

The St. Vrain Valley school board got their first glimpse at the fiscal year 22 school budget during Wednesday night’s study session. 

The public will get to see a preliminary budget at the March 26 board meeting. 

Tony Whiteley, executive director of budget and finance for SVVSD, said there are many factors in the upcoming budget that are still not clear, due to upcoming legislation and teacher compensation negotiations and teacher hiring for the upcoming school year. However, he said he manages the district’s budget conservatively by underestimating revenue amounts and overestimating expenditures. 

“Everything that we do is with an aim to most effectively spend the resources that we have been trusted to, to most effectively educate those kids that we’ve got,” Whitely said.

Even in a “normal” year, Whitely reported to the board there are areas of the budget that can’t be predicted.

“This year is worse than a normal year,” he said. “There are a lot of moving pieces that we typically, in a normal year, would have in place by now and would have a more firm understanding of our available resources.” 

The pandemic caused the Colorado State Legislature to suspend its session in 2020. This “had a cascading effect on some things,” Whitely said. 

Although there are some unknowns in next year’s budget, Whitely expects to see concrete numbers as soon as the end of the summer or early fall, he said. 

The public hearing for the school’s budget is scheduled for the June 9 school board meeting with an adoption date currently scheduled for June 23. 

Whitely reported that the district has roughly 33% of its total expenditures, or $125 million, in reserve in the district’s General Fund to give the district confidence that it will not have “cash flow issues or worry about the volatility” the pandemic had on state funding during the pandemic. 

“The fund balance keeps us running smoothly without major interruptions to programming and to be able to provide increased compensation for staff and teachers,” Whitely said. 

Superintendent Don Haddad explained that the amount resting in the General Fund is a culmination of the first installments of the 2008 and 2012 mill levy overrides, Build Amercia Bonds, grants and interest on the money, all of which the district has worked to bring in overtime. 

“This fund balance isn’t born out of shortchanging anybody or hoarding taxpayer money,” he said. “ It’s money we have been generating which then turns around and helps us to increase our bond rating, which then gives us the clout to get refinancing in place, which turns around and saves our taxpayers money.”

The beginning of the 2020-21 school year saw a lot of community interest in the budget, Haddad said. 

Board President Joie Siegrist was thankful to the district’s finance team for making the budget understandable which would allow the public to ask more informed questions as the budget process continues.