WVSD board approves budget
Student enrollment expected to be 3,587
As West Valley School District board members approved the 2008-09 budget Wednesday, Assistant Superintendent Doug Matson said enrollment was already looking good.
The district conservatively estimated that 3,587 students will arrive for the first day of school on Thursday, down from the 3,601 enrollment for the 2007-08 school year. “The high school is coming in with some pretty good numbers,” Matson said. “They’re looking for more teachers to go with that.”
Matson said he would wait to see if the students actually turn up before deciding whether to add staff. “Our numbers are looking pretty good with our budget right now.”
The new budget is set at $36.2 million, up from $33.5 million in 2007-08. The budget passed unanimously with board members Pam McLeod and Debbie Hjortedal absent.
The one part of the budget that made board members cringe was the fuel bid for the 2008-09 school year. Board member Bob Wentworth jokingly asked fellow board member Jim Williams if he wanted to flip a coin for the dubious privilege of making the motion to approve the contract. “Do it,” said Williams. “Get it over with.”
The contract with Eljay Oil, which was approved, sets the price of diesel at $4.26 per gallon and unleaded gasoline at $3.61 per gallon, increases of 45 percent and 34 percent above last year, respectively. It will cost the district nearly $219,549 for 43,000 gallons of diesel and 10,000 gallons of unleaded, if prices don’t continue to increase. “That is just the base,” said transportation director Brian Liberg. “Unfortunately, it could go up.”
The cost of fuel has been going up every year, with huge spikes the last two years. For the 1997-98 school year, the base bid for fuel was 71 cents per gallon for diesel and 77 cents per gallon for unleaded.
In other business, the board approved new engineering curriculum for the high school called Project Lead the Way. It focuses on training students for high-demand jobs in technology and engineering fields. Some of the classes will count for math or science credits and students will also have a chance to earn college credits.