Operation ASL Begins

If one summons the will to probe into the school district's proposed 2011-12 budget, the usual suspects seem to be clear of the usual juicing.  That is to say, those aspects of the budget which typically contain the fluff seem..well...a little less fluffy.  All that means is that the district has commenced Operation ASL.

Alternate
Storage
Locations


All that means is that we need to work a little harder and we may have to use a little brainpower to uncover the hidden gems.

Call 'em "wildcards" if you like...but there's more than ample room in the budget to cover even unanticipated expenses.  Time to trim this little hedge fund.

But what if expenses exceed budgeted amounts?
Could we trim the budget a little too much?  It can be pretty painful if we trim too much...right?  Well, there's an easy answer folks....what do you do with your own finances when an unexpected expense crops up or an expected expense costs more than anticipated.  You move a little over from savings, don't you?  And the district can do that too.  It's called FUNd BALANCE.  And it stands at well over 10% of our annual General Fund expenses.  Surely it can cover a little here and there.

Fund Balance Growth History
Don't believe us? Just look at Annual Meeting Reports over the past 5 years. You'll see the following

2010-11: Despite significant reduction to the budget between March and October: $400K surplus
2009-10: Electors cut levy $2M; the budget still came in $1.3M surplus (the plan was to take $800K from Fund Balance, but instead we ADDED $533K
2008-09: Put budget surplus of $762K into fund balance
2007-08 Put surplus of $1.5M into fund balance (begin balance:$5.77M; end balance: $7.24M)
2006-07 Put surplus of $850K into fund balance

Let's melt the slush fund today.