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NEWPORT – The Newport School District is proposing a $22.36 million district budget for the 2024-25 school year, up 14.1% from the previous year’s $19.21 million, as the district prepares for a budget hearing July 9.
“One of the areas that are increasing is budget capacity from $1 million to $2 million. It’s a buffer in the budget,” Business Manager Debra Buttrey said.
Buttrey said the budget capacity is simply a placeholder that doubled because the district went over their budget capacity projection last year.
“If we get grants during the school year, or more, you have to count on budget capacity to cover the grants. For example, if we get a $200,000 grant next year, we deduct that from our budget capacity,” she said.
Among the revenue is a 16.9% increase of local tax totaling $2.25 million.
It is assessed at $1.50 per thousand each year and as property values go up, revenue goes up alongside it, Buttrey said.
“We project a 5% increase in assessed value,” she said.
Total school district expenditures are budgeted for $22.36 million that includes $435,829 in carry over funds from reserves. This is different than prior years. The district will still have $3.94 million reserves. Buttrey says the board’s policy is to have at least 10% of the bud- get held in reserve.
Through a one-year memorandum of agreement with the teachers’ union that will expire Aug. 31, 2025, the district will hire additional teachers to bring down class sizes for grades K-4.
“When we went through teacher negotiations, they agreed to see how smaller class sizes go by hiring an additional teacher per grade level,” Buttrey said.
The district will pull money out of its reserves to hire more teachers and add four additional classes next year, according to Buttrey.
Newport School District’s enrollment numbers are expected to decrease by 27 students this year compared to last year for a total enrollment of an estimated 912 students and continue to slide down each year.
“It has always had decreasing enrollment for the last few years,” Buttrey said. “We’ve managed to stay flat the last two years because we pick up a few students.”
She said it has been a trend since COVID-19 to have an increase in the numbers of students in Homelink while students in basic education decrease, which will affect the district’s bottom line if the trend continues.
“We saw 1,000 kids in basic ed now we see 900,” she said.
Buttrey explained the district gets state MSOC (Materials Supplies Operational Costs) funding for basic ed students. If that number goes down, the Newport School District loses funding per child. MSOC funds are used to pay utilities, internet, and water.
“If it drops to the point where you can’t support your operational costs, they (the school board) will have to start looking at things differently,” she said.
Buttery explained for now, the decrease in MSOC funding is partially picked up by the alternative education side.
The district anticipated 15 students enrolled in Running Start, 185 enrolled in ALE/ Homelink program, 35 students in the middle school Career and Technical Education (CTE) program and 90 students in the high school CTE program.
All materials, supplies and operating costs have also increased, with the exception of facilities and maintenance which appears to have a decrease of $4,660 for a total expenditure of $225,044. Water and sewer experienced the most significant growth with an 75.8% increase, increasing by $436,513 for a total expenditure of $914,093.
“Things are costing more,” Buttrey said.
She said the biggest increase is liability insurance which was hitting about $200,000.
“An average teacher salary is $75,419 with 30% for benefits or $98,045 a year,” Buttrey said.
All teachers, classified and administrative staff will receive a 3.7% Inflation Price Deflator or Cost of Living Adjustment.
