Moscow ’21-22 schools budget looks a lot like it did before the pandemic

The Moscow School District’s new $29.2 million budget is nearly $300,000 more than the 2020-21 revised general fund budget, but Moscow School Board Chairman Ken Faunce said the increase is a return to pre-COVID-19 budget levels.

The Moscow School Board on Tuesday unanimously approved the 2021-22 school year budget.

“While it does look like an increase, really it’s just getting us back to the levels of what (the state) held back,” Faunce said.

Last year, Gov. Brad Little ordered a 1 percent holdback in March and a 5 percent holdback in July for K-12, higher education and all state agencies because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moscow Superintendent Greg Bailey said the state returned 5 percent of the holdbacks with COVID-19 relief money that has several restrictions on how it can be spent. Bailey said he would have preferred the 5 percent to be in the form of discretionary funds, or funds used for daily costs like electricity and water.

While the state did provide additional financial support, Bailey said he felt it could have been more, noting the record $800 million budget surplus the state was on pace for as of two weeks ago.

“We’re going to have to make do,and we understand that and we will,” he said.

Bailey and Faunce called on the state for more financial support, especially for facilities improvements.

“Facilities is definitely our biggest issue,” Bailey said. “I mean, we really want the state to step up and help schools with the funding for construction of schools or fixing school buildings.”

Fifth District state Sen. David Nelson, D-Moscow, said June 10 at a League of Women Voters of Moscow forum that he is working on a bill that would send funds from income or sales taxes to school districts to reduce their levy amounts. He said passing a levy is currently the only way for public schools to fund facilities projects for old schools in school districts.

“We would love more state support because we have to keep putting burdens on our local taxpayers, and we just don’t like doing that at all,” Faunce said.

Bailey said the main facilities project for the coming school year is removing and replacing heating systems with more energy-efficient ones, as well as installing air conditioning. No Moscow schools have air conditioning.

“We’re doing summer school right now, and we have to watch the temperature, and it limits us,” he said.

Per usual, salaries and benefits, at $21.7 million, will make up the overwhelming majority of the new budget’s expenditures, at 84 percent.

The Moscow School Board and the Moscow Education Association are negotiating salaries for the coming school year. Once those negotiations are complete, the budget will be adjusted, Faunce said.

“I think that we’re all doing the best given the not-so-great situation, and not exactly having some knowledge about what we’re getting from the state isn’t helpful either,” Moscow Education Association Co-President Marianne Sletteland said of the new budget.

Moscow School District Business Manager Jennifer Johnson said at Tuesday’s meeting that the school district’s local levy has been about 43 to 48 percent of the total general fund revenue since 2012-13.

Johnson said she expects $11.8 million in property tax revenue in the 2021-22 budget — just slightly higher than the current budget. State support is expected to be $12.3 million.

“We’re doing the best we can to be as fiscally conservative as possible, but we have the best interest of the children at heart, so there’s some things we have to do,” Faunce said.

Also at Tuesday’s board meeting:

The board approved a Moscow Middle School yearbook rate increase from $22 to $27 because of a spike in the cost for publishing the yearbook.

Bailey said the Idaho Community Foundation awarded $20,000 to the Moscow High School summer school program.

Cabeza can be reached at (208) 883-4631, or by email to gcabeza@dnews.com.