The tentative budget for East Aurora School District for 2019-20 has a nearly $6 million deficit, officials said Monday evening.
East Aurora projects more than $216 million in revenue from its local, state, national and other sources, East Aurora School District Chief Financial Officer Ann Williams told school board members Monday. However, the district’s spending plan projects about $222 million in expenses.
The school district will present a final version of the proposed budget in September, with board members voting on a final measure toward the end of next month.
Williams said officials will go back and refine their proposal, anticipating the final budget to look different than what was presented Monday.
“I am hopeful and confident that I will be able to close the gap on that number over the next two weeks with my blood, sweat and tears and with help from my colleagues,” Williams said Monday.
The largest expense in the tentative budget is for salaries. Salaries make up a little more than half of East Aurora’s expenses, Williams said. The overall budget for salaries is projected to go up by $26 million due to the hiring of additional instructional coaches, foreign language teachers and language acquisition coordinators, among other hires, as well as salary increases.
Almost $148 million in revenue will come from the state, the majority of it coming through evidence-based funding, which includes general state aid for schools, special education and English language learners dollars. Williams said the state’s evidence-based funding formula will have East Aurora receive almost $7 million more in that funding compared to last year.
The next highest source of revenue will come from local sources like property tax revenue – the 2019-20 revenue from local sources is projected at about $45 million.
If the budget does stay in the red, East Aurora would have to draw from its reserves. The fund balance would dip from $83.8 million to $78.1 million, officials said, under the current proposed budget. The approximately $78 million fund balance would still meet the school board’s threshold, Williams said.
“We will talk about carry-over (of grants) and potentially help us increase the anticipated revenues for the year, and some things that we can possibly trim on the expenditure side,” she said about the projected budget.
raguerrero@tribpub.com
