Школа округа Гранд-Форкс пересмотрит целевой показатель резервного фонда из-за роста расходов

GRAND FORKS — The Grand Forks School Board is moving forward with a plan to reevaluate its general fund balance goal. At their meeting on Monday, Aug. 24, board members informally agreed to hold a work session on the topic in the near future — acting on a recommendation from Superintendent Terry Brenner. ADVERTISEMENT “I don’t want to minimize the alarm here,” he said during the meeting. “We all need to be alarmed.” The board is looking to revisit the district’s Guiding Change Document, drafted in early 2022 as part of a budget realignment process. It deals with the general fund, which represents the bulk of expenses, including staff salaries and benefits. The Guiding Change Document implores the district to maintain 15% of its general fund balance every year. With a fund budget of $134 million, that equates to around $20.1 million. Brenner, who called the factors a “ perfect budgetary storm ,” says it’s a virtually impossible goal given inflation pressures, the state-imposed 3% cap on property tax increases and higher staffing costs. “The financial environment has changed considerably since the document was developed. Over the two most recent negotiating cycles — 2023 and 2025 — employee compensation increased by approximately 19%,” he wrote in a memo to members. “These increases reflect the board’s commitment to attracting and retaining high-quality staff through competitive compensation packages.” In other words, with roughly 85% of the fund budgeted for personnel costs, there’s nothing left if the district is required to save 15% each year. Board members largely agreed the goal should be reevaluated. No action was taken Monday. ADVERTISEMENT “When I first started working with GFEA (Grand Forks Education Association), we were always saying, ‘your fund balance is too high, bring it down,’ but now it’s not high enough,” School Board President JoNell Bakke said. “That speaks just to the general situation we have where there’s a lot of federal money that’s not coming in, and there’s a lot of state money that’s not going out. It’s creating problems for a lot of districts. ...” Amber Flynn, who served on the board when the document was introduced, said part of the reasoning was to address inflation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. “There was a significant impact on families in our district,” she said. “Especially because we have consistently done well in some of those areas (of the document) — it would be time to revisit the Guiding Change Document.” Outside of the financial discussion, Monday’s meeting was a light one with no audience members present. The only other notable agenda item was a presentation on Encore programming. Encore provides additional educational activities and opportunities after school hours at all 10 elementary schools. According to a presentation by Encore Director Kristyn Vetsch, 734 students took advantage of the program last school year. The program was supported through a federal grant, but GFPS isn’t eligible to receive that funding again until 2030, Assistant Superintendent Chris Triggs said. The district plans to use $215,500 from the general fund to keep the program, while exploring other revenue sources.