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By Alex Guerrero

It’s always nice to have extra money. And when — by law — the district was required to make a budget by June 30 for the next school year, they had to make a lot of assumptions.

So when Jennifer Walsh, director of finance and operations for the district, presented a revised budget at Tuesday’s board of education meeting, members learned the district had more money than they were originally told.

“Our biggest generator of revenue is called the Basic Education Formula,” she said.

The formula is state-aided funding from the state on a per-pupil basis and is the single biggest finance tool for the district. 

And when Walsh and her team were projecting a budget, they projected a 1% increase. But in actuality, the state increased the formula to 2.45%. Next year’s increase will be 2%.

“We ended up getting almost $300,000 more dollars in basic education revenue than we were anticipating,” she said.

The district also received $610,627 in federal aid. So the general fund revenue increased by $573,407.

The general fund also saw an increase in budgeted salaries to $332,427 and a decrease in health insurance benefit expenses of $400,000.

There was also an increase in liability insurance for fiduciary and travel policy and an increase of $55,000 due to severance payments.

The district also increased the amount for substitute teachers for the district by $100,000, and spent $232,000 for textbooks and a new science curriculum. 

So in total, expenses increased by $300,574.

According to Walsh, food service revenue increased $245,622, but food service expenses also increased to $257,067.

The district also experienced an increase in both revenue and expenses of $152,300 from a COVID testing grant, and an additional increase in revenue and expenses of $1,035,478 from Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief III funds.

What all this means is that the budget increased from their preliminary estimate of 12.03% to 12.09%.

In a COVID-19 report, as is happening in most of Minnesota, cases of the coronavirus were falling substantially from their peak in December and January. Besides lab-confirmed COVID tests, data was also reported using student, staff and family reported rapid-antigen tests. Tests are available for anyone associated with the district. Four staff reported positive over the weekend.

Students and staff are required to stay home for five days should they test positive for the virus, and the district is required to report any positive cases to the state.

District personnel will also notify families if their child was in close contact with someone who tested positive, at which point parents will have to decide whether to send their child back to the classroom. Any student who visits the nurse will be required to undergo a COVID screening.

Board members recognized Nick Lano, the vice president of Minnesota Insurance Scholastic Trust. They also celebrated Cindy Helgeson, Ashley Mattson and Ashley Wacholz, who were recognized as employees of the month for September, November and January, respectively. 

Members approved appointments for Jordann Battery, Jessie Bolinger, Mitzibelle Soto Lehocky, Kelli Hensche, Jason Hulburt, Amy Lundell, Andrea Chavez, Crystal Ryun, Carol Johnson and Day Pahpree. They approved leaves of absence for Kathy Nelson, Connie Kabrud and James Flores.

They also approved retirements for Marie Fobair Maras, Sherry Ulve, Lori Brune, Patricia Larson, Lisa Haney and Kathy Hoen. Board members accepted the resignations of Dominique Lenway as Tiger Cub Care supervisor, Ryan Morrison as a paraeducator at Lakeview Elementary and Cynthia Calderon as a paraeducator at Brookside.

Board members approved an amendment to the budget as well as agreements for Community Education coordinators, Community Education services staff and off-schedule hourly wages.

The American Indian Parent Advisory Committee issued a vote of concurrence with Albert Lea Area Schools, saying the board and/or district was in compliance with meeting the needs of American Indian students. 

The board approved the disposal of nine swim pool lane lines.

Board members approved a $300 donation from Michael and Rhonda Allison to be used for clothing, supplies, snacks and milk, and a $500 donation from the Union Center that will go towards the Southwest Robotic teams, and a $1,200 donation from CCF Bank that will help with school-wide matrices, banners and instructional programming. 

In their February summary of expenses report, the district spent about $6.03 million. Over $3.1 million went to debt service and more than $2 million to the general fund.