School board approves budget

Hot Springs County School District’s Board of Trustees approved the budget for the upcoming 2018-19 school year at their July 17 meeting.

Looking at the historical figures from the general fund, there is less than a 1 percent increase overall in expenditures, transfers and reserves for the upcoming year, making a total budget of $11,296,283.

Enrollment at this point appears as though it will be down about 2.46 percent or a total of 16 students overall. When enrollment is down the cost per student goes up. This year, the district will be spending $559 more per student for their education, a total of $17,468 per child.

Fortunately, with the slight uptic in the oil market, revenues from the various mill levies are up just over a million dollars and other sources are up $4.1 million. However, the state has once again cut funding to the district by just over a half-million dollars.

A little restructuring has allowed the total line item for salaries to go down just slightly, in the $20,000 range. Benefits for staff did increase for the upcoming year by $250,000.

Various items in the instruction costs for students were cut, but nothing drastic, mostly between $2,000 and $20,000.

The instructional support budget took a big hit with the auditorium, cutting that item alone by over $41,000.

Central support dropped $90,000 from the transportation line item and nearly $24,000 from technology services.

Middle school activities saw a nice $18,000 jump in funding for their students. High school activities were cut about $10,000 for the year and vocational instruction lost $6,800.

Even with all the cuts mentioned, instruction costs increased $279,097 for the coming year and instructional support jumped $157,398.

Another big jump for the district came in the form of grant monies awarded to the schools. Grants are up $122,000 this year for a total of $926,205