There has been a lot of discussion about the Klamath County School District (KCSD) and how its money has been spent for maintenance projects. With bond measure 18-91, a fiscally conservative county, and schools needing help, it’s a discussion that’s been needed. However, some of the numbers on what the KCSD spends may be skewed in a way that is misleading.
Out in the public, folks are being told that the Klamath County School District has spent “$100 million” over the last five years, and that in ten years we will be looking at the KCSD having spent “$1 billion on the schools”. Undoubtedly, that is a lot of money!
However, those numbers are incorrect.
Where the “$100 million” came from is a mystery. The folks who are floating that number admit to lumping the City and County School Districts together, but it cannot be the real maintenance budget for the Klamath County School District for the last five years which is closer to $10 million and when broken down, is a little over $2 million a year. And that’s for 19schools, in a school district that’s one of the largest in terms of area covered. So, what do the real maintenance numbers look like?
- FY 2008-09: $2,536,882.56 (actual)
- FY 2009-10: $2,045,889.69 (actual)
- FY 2010-11: $2,595,630.96 (actual)
- FY 2011-12: $2,015,236.90 (actual)
- FY 2012-13: $2,366,063.13 (budget)
In that same five year time span, the money the Klamath County School District spent on capital improvements was $17 million. If you combine both capital improvements at $17 million with the $10 million in maintenance, you only get $27million! Now you may be asking, “What’s the difference between maintenance and capital improvements? Aren’t they same?”
Actually, there is a difference.
Routine maintenance, or preventative maintenance, is part of the on-going care and upkeep of any building. It includes tasks like changing various filters, painting, minor equipment change-out, caulking, sealing, minor repair of various components, and other activities that are planned and performed at regular intervals to extend the life or prevent the premature failure of building components or equipment.
Capital improvements on the other hand, include the additions or building structures that increase the value of the school district’s property. Capital improvements can also include replacements and upgrades that make our properties more useful and extend the usefulness of them. For the Klamath County School District, this includes steam line repair, lighting retrofits, gym renovations and siding, heat pump installation, track resurfacing, surveillance systems, fire and sprinkler systems, bleachers, flooring and carpeting, and scoreboards. It covers quite a bit, but these add to the value of the KCSD’s properties!
If you want to talk about the Klamath County School District’s budget in general, which perhaps is part of where the misleading $100 million figure is coming from, the general fund budget from 2012-13 was about $55 million. The bulk of that comes from state and federal support. Virtually all of that funding is used for the day-to-day costs of educating the district’s 6,100 students at 19 different school facilities scattered across the largest geographic school district in Oregon. Yes, you read that correctly – the largest geographic school district in Oregon. Not several small school districts with their armies of administrators, but one large school district with 6,100 students, 19 facilities, one set of administrators, classified staff and 320 teachers.
But what else does that $55 million pay for?
- The district transports 4,500 children on 67 different bus routes that range as far as Lake of the Woods, Bly Mountain, Gilchrist and Malin. Transportation costs alone were $3.1 million this year.
- The district feeds lunch to 3,700 children daily, and breakfast to 1,660 daily.
- Utility costs such as electricity and heating fuel were nearly $1.9 million last year. (This cost will be coming down as recent energy-efficiency projects begin to pay off. There are many more such projects proposed in the bond measure that could save even more money in the years ahead.)
And much of that money comes from state and federal funding, which comes with restrictions on how it can be spent.
The Citizens for Klamath County Schools PAC are happy share details and answer questions about the budget and how money is spent. We strongly encourage you to visit the Klamath County School District’s Web site to learn more about the kinds of projects that are being undertaken, and, as always, if you have questions, you can email us or KCSD for information.
