School district set to get $1.4 million to cope with COVID

The Hot Springs County School District Board of Trustees received a cautiously optimistic financial forecast from Business Manager Chauncy Johnson on March 18, who reported the district is due to receive roughly $1.4 million as a result of the recently passed COVID-19 stimulus package.

“We’ve inquired about how we can utilize this funding, and the good news is that the federal government hasn’t put a lot of tight stipulations on it,” said Johnson, who noted that authorized expenditures for the $1,434,935.08 include retrofitting air filtration and HVAC systems to reduce airborne transmission within buildings, as well as addressing “learning loss” among students.

Johnson expects this funding should allow the district to pass through fiscal year 2022 without significant difficulties, even if his “my nightmares are come true,” and the state senate passes its bill to cut $135 million from education, since the COVID-19 stimulus package’s total funds for state education also equal $135 million.

Johnson expressed the hope that the state legislature would allow the district to increase its reserve percentage, which currently stands at 15%.

“That allows us just about enough to get through the months that we don’t have revenue, during the summer, and continue our payroll” and other expenses, Johnson said. “If it went up to 25%, it would allow us to utilize this federal money much more efficiently, so that we could plan for a couple of years in advance, as opposed to just getting through one more year.”

Johnson conceded that the district’s local revenues continue to be “down drastically,” although he was much more sunny in predicting “we’ll make it through the year okay,” even if it would be “pretty thin” in terms of additional revenues.

“Then again, going into fiscal year 2022, we will be reimbursed from the state for the money that we’ve lost locally, so things are looking as good as they can, considering the tough situation that I know the state’s in right now,” Johnson said. “We’ll continue to be conservative with the way that we manage our money the best we can to still get the job done, but I’ll have to do some financial gymnastics for this preliminary budget, (given that) we’re working with different funding sources.”

When Board Treasurer Joe Martinez asked for the percentage drop in county valuation, Johnson reported the last update was 31%, amounting to approximately $1.5 million, and when Martinez followed up by asking for the source of that decline, Johnson agreed with him that it was “mostly in the natural resources side,” particularly mineral extraction.

Johnson also confirmed Board Trustee Clay Van Antwerp’s outlook on the district’s funding, telling him that, “if the cut goes as deep as the senate is pushing, this next year, we would be okay, and I believe the following year we’d be okay, as long as there were no additional cuts, but if there are additional cuts beyond that, then (fiscal year 2023) would be a little bit up in the air at that point.”

Johnson anticipated the federal monies would allow the district to utilize its reserves to make it through fiscal year 2023, but even then, he acknowledged that “all bets are off beyond that, if things don’t change.”