The Bismarck School District has a goal of building its ending fund balance back up.
That’s a goal made a little more difficult in the present school funding environment.
While the Legislature didn’t cut state spending on K-12 education, it didn’t increase it, either. And property valuations are not expected to increase enough for the district to get a lot of extra money from property taxes.
The District right now has a $160 million budget – but a projected ending fund balance of about 6.3 percent.
"We have a district goal of 10 percent," said Darrin Scherr, the business and operations manager for the Bismarck schools. "That's a five year plan."
Scherr said the 10 percent goal is important.
"For example, we just passed a bond issue," Scherr said. "The interest rate you get on that bond is affected by the ending fund balance. If you drop below 10 percent, your investors may start asking, 'What's going on?' That can drive the cost to the taxpayers."
The district’s human resources manager, Lisa Kudelka, said in the current financial climate, that’s heavy lifting.
"In a district with a growing student population, that growth isn't reflected until the second year of the biennium," Kudelka said. "As a district that has been growing for at least 10n years, we constantly are behind in the amount of money we get for students we have to educate today. In some ways, that starts to catch up with us."
Kudelka said the Bismarck district is doing what it can to get that ending fund balance up to the 10 percent figure.
"We're trying to not add any additional teaching staff," Kudelka said. "Every position we have costs more money. We're trying to get the biggest bang for our buck."