The county school board looked over its budget for the upcoming for ‘08-'09 fiscal year, weighing expense against income and the $620,271 shortage.

The total revenue, $44,040,772, is up over 2 percent from last year's revenue.

Feeding revenue is $22,288,687 from local sources, $21,454,399 from the state and roughly $300,000 from federal funding for school programs.

Slightly exceeding revenue, the projected expenditure at first reading was $44,661,043.

To balance the difference, the board discussed several options.

MORE MONEY

For more revenue, the board discussed drawing from the previous year's surplus, audit reimbursement and their fund balance.

As much as $300,000 may be left over from the ‘07-'08 fiscal year, says Chief Financial Officer for the school district Susan Dowd, $212,000 of that surplus is money the board set aside from the general fund to cover expense if there was a shortage in state dollars from new legislation.

Other money, perhaps $500,000 to $800,000, could come from a state reimbursement to Newberry's school district for underestimating how much money the county would receive in property tax.

School districts rely on the state to give them money from a one cent sales tax increase instead of their prior local property tax funding.

To determine how much each district receives each year, the state calculates a county's total property tax collection for one year plus the current price of consumer goods and population growth.

But Dowd thinks the state has underestimated how much Newberry would have collected in property tax, costing the district thousands of funding dollars. The audit could recover the money.

Board members also discussed taking money from their "savings" or fund balance.

Pulling their $620,271 deficit from the $6 million plus in the fund balance wouldn't impose on the amount the board has voted to always keep in there, which is 10 percent of the current year's general fund operating budget, but Dowd doesn't recommend that pull.

She says the district relies on the fund balance during winter months when tax collection money is low, and a healthy fund balance prevents borrowing money.

LESS SPENDING

For less expenditure, the board discussed altering a salary increase, cutting student slots and having fewer personnel.

The proposed budget sets aside $1.1 million for the state-ordered teacher salary increase of 3.85 percent.

But the additional $542,230 set aside by the proposed budget for all school district personnel to have the same increase is discretionary, and may be trimmed for school and district administrators.

The board also discussed having fewer students at the Infinity School and as a last resort, keeping vacancies that have opened throughout the district.