PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles School District board got a surprise with the final budget report for 2012-13 — a surplus.
Instead of a forecast $250,000 deficit, which would have eaten further into the district’s reserve fund, the final budget was nearly $100,000 in the black, district Business Manager Kelly Pearson told directors at a recent School Board meeting.
When the 2012-13 school year’s final bills were paid and revenues collected, the district was able to put $98,367 into its coffers,
Pearson said.
In 2012, Pearson predicted a $249,491 shortfall.
The district ended the year with 3,432 full-time enrollments in kindergarten through 12th grade — 28.88 pupils higher than the district had budgeted for.
For each “full-time enrollment,” or FTE, the district received about $5,300 from the state, with the increased enrollment adding about $150,000 in state funding.
Once the change in enrollment was fully known in June, the district still expected a $125,000 shortfall.
By the time tax revenues came in, the budget still was considerably higher than expected, and the deficit turned into a surplus, Pearson said.
However, unexpectedly higher tax revenues are not expected in 2014, she said.
The district’s beginning fund balance was $4,437,600, and it ended the year with $4,474,000, Pearson said.
Revenues, including taxes, totaled $36,958,000 and expenditures were $36,860,000.
The early October federal government shutdown did not affect the district’s money flow, Pearson said.
District policy establishes the minimum 2012-13 total fund balance at $1.475 million.
The district’s total enrollment for October 2012 was 3,864, or 3,664.20 FTE.
FTE is the count of the number of hours students are in class, so kindergarten students, who attended a half-day in 2012-13, are only counted as a half of a student as are part-time high school students.
The district’s total enrollment for October 2013 was 3,893, or 3,771.78 FTE.
This is the second year that the district’s long slide in enrollment has slowed, though the last of the large classes, with 300 students or more, are currently at the high school level.
There was so much growth at the sixth grade level at Dry Creek that has triggered a late decision to hire another teacher at the school, said Superintendent Jane Pryne.
“If there are any teachers left out there, we have been hiring a lot this year,” Pryne said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.