Q: Why is the district building schools when it's cutting budgets?

This is a fair question, and it can feel contradictory at first. Many people reasonably ask, “Why not just use the construction money to pay for teachers and busing instead?” The short answer is that state law does not allow it.

Public schools operate with multiple separate funds, and the law strictly limits how money in each fund can be used. Voter-approved bonds can only pay for specified capital projects - buildings, renovations, safety improvements, and related facilities work. Operating revenue (primarily from state funding and local operating levies) pays for the day-to-day costs of running schools: teachers, staff, instructional materials, transportation, and other ongoing expenses. Those two pots of money cannot be mixed. Bond dollars simply cannot be redirected to salaries and benefits, busing, or other operating costs.

The current bond construction projects are not adding new schools to the district’s existing footprint. We are replacing two elementary schools that are both more than 100 years old and expanding them at the same time to meet capacity needs in high-growth areas. These building projects are part of a ten-year plan that addresses aging facilities, safety and security improvements, and projected enrollment growth in growing areas of the district - without creating the higher fixed operating costs that can come with adding to the number of schools the district operates. The new facilities, approved by voters, will give students and staff modern learning environments designed to better meet their needs - a significant and positive step forward.

The difficult but necessary budget reductions you’ve heard about are occurring entirely in the operating budget. Those pressures come from rising costs, increasing state requirements, growing student needs, and funding that has not kept pace with expenses. Because bond dollars can only be used for facilities, the construction work does not reduce the need for cuts in the operating budget.

In short, we are using restricted capital funds to replace and add space to two very old schools in growth areas, while the operating budget faces its own separate challenges. Understanding that different funding sources have different legal purposes - and that the money cannot simply be moved from buildings to teachers and busing - helps explain why both can happen at the same time.