District takes cautious approach with budget

Cloquet school board members unanimously passed the closest thing to a balanced budget the school district has seen in years, with only $2,366 in the red for the unassigned general fund versus a projected deficit of $514,000 this time last year.

“This is probably the lowest or as close to a balanced budget as I’ve seen,” said district finance director Candace Nelis. The unassigned general fund includes salaries, benefits and most items administrators and school board members have more control over, versus items such as food services, transportation and long-term facilities maintenance. The total unassigned general fund revenues and expenses are just over $36.15 million for the 2023-24 school year.

Although the budget is more balanced, superintendent Michael Cary cautioned board members that this year’s budget is also a little less certain than in past years, in large part because of the extensive legislation passed last month affecting school districts in myriad ways, including more special education funding, free lunches for all kids and unemployment insurance for staff members who normally don’t get paid in the summer.

Nelis said she and Cary built three budgets for the next fiscal year (which starts in July) earlier this year so they could be prepared for various legislative scenarios, depending on early discussions.

Cary said they are being extra-cautious because of the drop in student enrollment, and inflation last year caused the district’s fund balance to drop significantly.

“When you have a healthy fund balance, you can have a bad year and that’s OK because you’ll probably have a good year at some point to offset it,” he said. “But you don’t want to start stacking those negative years on top of each other.”

Nelis told the board the mid-year budget revision will come in November this year, which is earlier than usual.

In other matters, the lack of rain means the activity complex construction is steaming ahead. The dirt work is already done for the football/soccer field, and workers have moved on to the new tennis courts.

“I think every two or three minutes there would be another truck dumping sand and driving away with excavated dirt,” superintendent Cary said.