Deficit. . .

The state funds school districts' operating costs according to the previous year's enrollment. A school funding formula adjusts that number according to demographic factors and participation in programs like bilingual and special education, then multiplies that by a dollar amount set by lawmakers each year.
The District enrolled 4,276 last year and 4,215 students this year — a 61-student drop in enrollment — which, once plugged into the funding formula, accounted for almost $1.6 million less in funding than last year. At the same time, however, the District also received an extra $2 million due to a $246 increase in the amount legislators decided school districts will receive per student this year.
After evening out those cuts and windfalls, the District would have been starting the year out with about $710,000 more than it had last year. But a $1.2 million shortfall in special education funding put the District back at a deficit. When the District filed its 120th-day report to the state at the end of last year, it counted some ancilliary employees twice or more, inflating this year's budget by as much as $1.2 million.
As a result, the state Education Department had said it would slash $1 million from the District's state allocation for this year. The state never wound up reclaiming that $1 million for this year, Sanchez said. But because the District is now reporting the correct — and lower — number of ancilliary workers it employs, the District's budget for special education is $1.2 million lower than it was last year.
Cockerham already started cutting payroll expenses a month ago when he reduced the number of days that employees in several administrative departments will work next year, but the cuts may extend into the classroom, Cockerham said. For more on how the budget could affect teachers' jobs, see related story on page A23.
The possibility of job cuts have overshadowed discussion about the state-mandated 2-percent raise for school employees. For a level-three teacher — the most senior classification for teachers in the state — who makes $50,000, the raise amounts to an extra $1,000. Teachers will also get a small bump in their annual salaries due to a legislative mandate that added one more instructional day to next year's calendar. Working the extra day would net the same level-three teacher an additional $274.
Classified staff like secretaries, custodians and cooks will receive an additional 1 percent raise. For a custodian earning $12,000, it amounts to $363.36. The state-mandated raise is an average raise, which means that some employees may receive a higher percent raise than others, as long as the average is equal or greater than required by the state.