WHITE SALMON — Superintendent Rich Polkinghorn presented a budget status report at the April 25 White Salmon Valley School District board meeting that included enrollment, actual and projected expenditures, and revenues.
Polkinghorn said the district has begun building next year’s budget, with the biggest piece being human resources — “a meticulous process that involves updating every single employee contract,” he told board members. “This amounts to more than 400 lines in an Excel spreadsheet; each line has to be analyzed for accuracy, rolled up to the next school year, based on assumptions — best guesses — of salary and benefit costs.”
Salaries make up the biggest portion of the district’s budget.
At the time of the meeting, Polkinghorn was hopeful the district would be able to add staffing next year for middle and intermediate school; in a May 9 update, he said the district had posted three full-time positions (two of which, as per contracts, must be posted in-district first) — for grade 5-8 music, 7-12 CTE and 9-12 online school.
At the April 25 meeting, he said current staff will be shuffled to accommodate those added positions while keeping those who want to work working.
Polkinghorn also shared that enrollment is up by about 20-plus kids and the district is still projecting an ending fund of about 10%.
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