Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry Warren County School Board members (from left) Kevin Lindvay, Arthur Stewart, and Joe Colosimo, look over budget documents prior to approving the budget at a special meeting Monday night.

The budget approved Monday by the school board will put a significant dent in the district’s fund balance. But, it won’t put additional tax burdens on the residents of the district.

The board unanimously approved a zero-tax-increase budget despite facing a $4.7 million deficit.

Director of Business Services Jim Grosch provided the details of the budget, including revenues of $80,917,690 — including $1.4 million in Elementary and Secondary School Relief through the federal CARES Act — and expenditures of $85,633,686.28. The difference would be covered by the district’s fund balance.

Expenditures are up almost $4 million compared to 2019-2020. Revenues fail to keep pace, with an estimated rise of less than $500,000.

“If we spend everything that’s in the budget… our fund balance would be down to $12 million,” Grosch said. “Hopefully that’s not the case. We’ll see what the unprecedented 2020-2021 school year brings.”

The situation looks worse moving another year down the road. Grosch presented a projection document to the board that shows estimated expenditures of $86.5 million for 2021-2022, revenues dropping to $79.6 million, and an anticipated deficit of $7.5 million.

Board member Arthur Stewart said the board did not want to raise taxes on top of all of the other fiscal problems that have arisen from COVID-19.

“I can’t remember when we had a $4.7 million deficit and didn’t feel the need to raise taxes,” Stewart said. “Given COVID-19… we’re all committed to not raising taxes.”

COVID-19 rears its head at several points in the budget narrative.

“It is possible, due to COVID-19, that individual classes may be altered, postponed, or canceled for the overall safety of the school setting.

“Due to the COVID-19 closure of 2019-2020, additional (curriculum) mapping work will need to be completed…”

Professional development “focus areas will be driven by students needs resulting from the COVID-19 closure of 2019-2020.”

The online education portion of the budget narrative contains additional detail for a year in which administrators expect many more students to utilize the Virtual Academy.

“It is possible, due to COVID-19, that athletic opportunities may be altered, postponed, or canceled.”

The same language appears under co-curricular offerings.

From an expenditure perspective, contingency funds see the biggest changes due to the pandemic. “Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the uncertainty of ‘normal school district operations,’ dollars were budgeted in contingency as opposed to their ‘normal’ line items.” There are $4,568,279 dollars in contingency throughout the budget. That represents 5 percent of the total budget.