The Wright City R-II School Board approved the district’s budget for its 2021-2022 fiscal year during its monthly meeting on June 24. The annual review followed a year in which the district was hit with unusual expenses related to COVID-19, but also saw its finances subsidized heavily by the federal government.

“Those ESSER relief funds really helped us out,” said Superintendent Dr. Chris Berger. “Although it was a good year financially, we’re moving into 2022 cautiously, because we know those funds will run out eventually.”

The district finished the 2020-2021 fiscal year with an estimated ending balance of $9,188,237 across its funds. The majority of this balance — $6,674,043 — resides in “Fund One,” the fund for incidental expenses.

Total estimated revenues for fiscal year 2022 are estimated at $26,285,817, compared to estimated total expenditures of $24,509,546, leaving a surplus of $1,776,271.

“We feel optimistic,” said Berger. “I think if everything shakes out we might able to climb into a black budget. Right now we’ve got a $100,000 deficit budget for operations in fiscal year 2022.”

The deficit balance in Fund One, which is for “incidentals,” is a result of $9,488,129 in expenses compared to $8,578,377 in revenue. Fund One combined with Fund Two, the teacher’s fund, makes up the school district’s operations budget. Fund Three is for debt service and Fund Four represents capital projects.

“On the expenditure side we had a good year for faculties and maintenance,” said Berger. “One prime example is that substitutes were so rare that we were averaging about a 60-percent fill rate. That’s bad for the classroom, but it was good for the budget.”

There were several COVID-19 related provisions that supported the R-II budget, along with many other districts across the state and country.

“The good side of fiscal year ’21 on the revenue side is that we had help from both the federal government and the county,” said Berger. “We had the Prop C statewide sales tax. Another thing to note is moving to seamless summer option for food service allowed for all of our kids to be free, so the reimbursement rate for summer was higher. Revenues for food service were really good.”

Berger said the district is counting on an increase in enrollment, after numbers dropped for the first time in many years during 2020-21.

“There are a lot of positive vibes in terms of recovery of the economy nationwide,” said Berger. “I also think we’re all concerned about a pretty harsh slow down that could be ahead of us.”

This budget review was part of a process that takes place every June to close out the fiscal year. However, the figures won’t be completely finalized until the fall when all the budget numbers are available in detail.

“The auditors will come in before the turn of the calendar year, and that’s kind of the final nail in the fiscal year 2021,” added Berger.