Schools launch ‘brainstorming’ sessions for 2004-’05 budget

By Tony Ku

You can still smell the freshly sharpened pencils as students frantically scribble notes.

And while the school year is barely into its fifth week, the Kyrene School Board is already ensuring the success of district students by starting initial budgeting for the 2004-2005 school year.

“At this point, we’re really at the brainstorming stages,” said Terry Tatterfield, assistant superintendent of support services.

The budget committee’s goals for this year are to ensure that funding can be dispersed in such a way that funds will continue to enhance student learning as well as grow district’s student enrollment base.

Some of the guidelines formulated by the committee range from respecting class sizes and the impact on student learning to utilizing internal processes that would research and propose improvements to the district.

Tatterfield said there were several variables that could lead to a decrease in funding from the state.

“We’re seeing a 300-student decline, and we are aware of our decline,” he said.

Other variables that were considered include a 2 percent inflation factor that consists of $1.4 million and the need to increase the district’s health care plan by 15 percent, requiring $600,000 more.

“It’s impressive how we’ve been able to come up with an outline of what we want to do with the following year’s budget,” said school board member Slade Mead.       

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