WVSD budget reflects slight increases

The West Valley board of directors got its first look at the proposed 2008-09 budget Wednesday, which appears fairly stable even in the face of rising food and fuel prices.

The budget is set at $36.2 million, up slightly from $33.5 million in 2007-08, said Doug Matson, assistant superintendent. “We prepared a pretty conservative budget,” he said.

The district is anticipating 3,587 students, down slightly from the 3,601 students who attended classes in 2007-08. “Our enrollment is pretty flat,” Matson said.

The food services budget is only increasing marginally from $1,033,447 to $1,096,663 and the pupil transportation fund looks similar with an increase from $1,180,669 to $1,188,651. The slight increases look good in a year when food and fuel prices have jumped upward significantly, but the district had to make cuts to keep the costs in line.

A few bus routes were eliminated and 13 labor hours per day were cut from the food services budget. “We’re trying to curb our costs.”

The budget will be finalized during the district’s Aug. 20 meeting.

In other action, the board approved an increase in the number of collaboration days at Centennial Middle School from 14 to 21. The school will be reducing the passing period from four minutes to three and cutting down on the number of assemblies to regain instructional time lost to the collaboration time.