The Bainbridge Island School District has begun the 2023-24 budget process by taking a closer look at the past and continuing to take a conservative outlook.

At the December study session, school board members took an overview of the budget along with expenditures in relation to revenue, fund balance and a review of stakeholder survey feedback.

Deputy superintendent Erin Murphy shared the state of the budget while explaining how the district used a conservative approach for planning and that a couple of circumstances added unexpected windfalls that helped close the deficit gap at the end of the year.

The 2021-22 budget was planned for 3,479 full-time students. However, there were 140 more students enrolled.

“We were hoping that more kids would show up while trying to be somewhat conservative,” Murphy said, adding it’s unlikely that would happen again on BI because of its aging population.

Murphy said the increase in enrollment helped reduce the year-end deficit. BISD started the year facing a $3.6 million deficit and made very conservative estimates for teaching staff and district employees. The district gained $1.39 million from the state due to the added enrollment to help close the deficit gap. And the state gave the district a one-time, $1 million student stabilization funding, which further reduced the deficit to $500,000.

While focusing on building the 2022-23 budget, the school board must consider changes in revenue and expenses for the anticipated $63 million budget and will look at increased salary costs; decrease in full-time staff; decrease in the federal food service revenue; increases in fuel, insurance, power and food costs; increase in levy revenue; and a projected reduction in enrollment.

Murphy said the district spends one-fifth of levy funds to make up the difference between state-allocated funding and actual costs. For this year, Murphy said, “the district is poised to hit our 5% threshold, and we don’t have to be concerned about this year’s budget, but looking forward, we cannot continue to deficit spend at the rate that we are. So, moving forward, what are some considerations that we’re going to look at?”

The Budget Advisory Committee is making recommendations for change and during the next six months the district will continue conversations with stakeholders to further the process and will put forth a proposal in July with a final budget expected in August 2023.