About Your Local Schools, Did You Know?

As part of an ongoing effort to keep local community members informed, school district officials wish to add a layer of awareness about school budget concerns. In that spirit of demystification, Superintendent Fred Hofman and Chinook School District Board Members wish to shed some light on costs and current conditions.

Much of this information has already been shared in inserts that have accompanied the printed athletic programs made available at sporting events. For example, Hofman wishes for readers to know that schools are not allowed to use the transportation fund to cover the costs of extra-curricular transportation or educational field trips.

“The costs of extra-curricular activities not covered by ticket sales, including transportation, come from the same place as teacher and staff salary/benefits, classroom supplies, etcetera; that’s the general fund. Some programs bring in very little ticket sale revenue to offset the expense of the program: cross country, tennis, golf, and track have no ticket sales, and we only host one wrestling meet, so these sports do not generate much, if any, revenue assistance through ticket sales for events,” Hofman wrote.

Furthermore, the district spent $15,000 on officials for football and volleyball this past fall. Hofman also reports that the district spends $950 - $1,200 for each night that four basketball games transpire in Floyd Bowen Gymnasium, depending upon the cost of the officials’ individual mileage. And ticket sales rarely cover the full cost of those hired officials.

Another expense occurs in the School Lunch Program. At Chinook, that program cost $340,000 to operate in 2024-25. The district received around $61,000 from parents paying their child’s lunch bills and received $130,000 in reimbursement from the School Lunch Program. Performing the computation, the math suggests that the district lost approximately $149,000 last year. “This impacts our general fund, since that is where the difference comes from, and offering a hot lunch program is optional for schools,” Hofman stated.

To deal with the budget restrictions due to declining enrollment and failed levies, the board has been forced to make budgetary cuts. This belt-tightening has included eliminating some activity programs, such as cheerleading and speech and drama this past year and reducing the number of overnight trips for some activities, including wrestling, basketball, band, and tennis. Decisions about additional program cuts or potential reinstatement of programs will be made by the board in May or June after the status of the levies are known, according to Hofman.

In addition, since May of 2023, the board has reduced the number of regular employed staff by twelve. “This reduction has resulted in increased class sizes and having fewer staff available for classroom support, which has necessitated closing the school libraries for parts of the school day,” explained Hofman.

He added: “It is very possible that without any levy funds to create room in the general fund, more programs may need to be eliminated in order to make ends meet. There are only so many dollars available in the general fund. What’s next? Do we cut assistance for struggling readers or do we cut a sports program?”