Good first day . . .

The first day of the new school year is behind us. It is interesting how the context for one’s work influences the criteria used to determine how successful day one was. For me, it was a successful day. I had no phone calls related to bus problems and, more importantly, enrollment was above budget projections. This is important because the majority of our state funding is based on student enrollment. Over estimating and developing a budget based on more students than actually show up can result in a budget deficit with limited options since much of our expenditures are contractually driven. So, the first day always brings with it some anxiety as we wait for that first student count.


The enrollment yesterday was about 50 students above budget projections, a number that we expect will increase over the next few days as additional students return from vacations. This provides some budget cushion that may be necessary as the Governor awaits September’s state economic forecast and the potential for reductions to all state budgets. We learned last month that reductions are likely and reading the latest articles on economic projections for the state, it appears that we will be faced with some loss of anticipated state revenue.