River Ridge budget
River Ridge District
facing budget deficit,
enrollment problems
By Ted Pennekamp
Just prior to the boycotted special meeting of electors Wednesday night, a school board meeting was held during which the first draft of the 2015-16 budget for the River Ridge School District was discussed.
District Administrator Jeff Athey said that one of the more important aspects of the proposed budget is that there will be an approximate $526,000 budget deficit.
“We need to get it back to zero,” said Athey about the budget deficit. Athey said that there is about $1.3 million in the Fund Equity and that the $526,000 could come from that. Athey cautioned, however, that the district cannot continue to take money from the Fund Equity.
The budget will be finalized in October.
Athey also said that the district faces the prospect of losing approximately 23 students to open enrollment, which will greatly reduce the amount of state aid that the district will receive. He said preliminary figures show that 33 students are expected to open enroll into the district, while 56 are expected to enroll out.
Athey said that this would reduce the state aid by approximately $6,000 for each of expected 23 students that the district would lose.
“That’s the boat we’re in,” said Athey, who noted that the district could be facing more cuts to personnel, programs, etc. “The residents of the district need to figure out what do we want in the future for our kids.”