School Board passes $107.4M budget for 2017-18

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake School Board on Thursday unanimously approved its proposed $107.4 million operating budget for the 2017-18 school year, expressing confidence in this year’s budget but wary of looming changes.

The $107.4 million operating budget will spend $12,480 per-student for an estimated K-12 enrollment of 8,610 students in 2017-18. The bulk of that $107.4 million, $85.3 million, or 79 percent of the budget, is slated to pay for salaries and benefits for teachers, administrators, and other staff.

About 17 percent of school’s operating budget, $17.9 million, is expected to come from the local levy — $4.54 per $1,000 in assessed value for those who live in the Moses Lake School District.

“We feel very good about this, we are a blessed community. We don’t have to struggle,” said School Board President Kevin Donovan.

However, uncertainty over the change in school funding recently passed by the state legislature, as well as rising health insurance costs, provoked an intense discussion about the future no one is quite certain about.

According to Superintendent Josh Meek, about 23 percent of the district’s budget is “tied up in health care,” with per-student expenditures rising $1,400 in the last two years, due primarily to rising health insurance costs.

“Retirement rates are up, and that is out of our control,” Meek added.

The district has set aside $24.9 million, or 23 percent, of its 2017-18 budget for “employee benefits and withholding,” but has not broken out that figure out further.

But the biggest uncertainty was the “McCleary Fix” passed earlier this summer, which will raise the state property tax levy in order to increase state school funding while at the same time capping the local levy at $1.50 per $1,000.

“That will give us a whole new set of challenges,” Meek said.

According to Meek, under the new formula, the state will only fund basic education, which doesn’t include music or sports or other extracurricular activities.

“There will be more for basic education beginning with the 2018-19 school year, and there will be some huge increases in spending in some areas,” he said.

But the local levy — which is now called an “enrichment levy” — will now bring in around $6 million, rather than the current $17.9 million. And any future enrichment levies must be approved by the Office Superintendent of Public Instruction prior going before the voters.

“The levy proposal is due in October (for a February vote), but we won’t be given any details on what an enrichment levy should look like until December,” Groff said.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com