A $21.3 million budget will be presented to the Holbrook School District Governing Board for the 2011-12 school year.

The budget includes $14,673,503 for maintenance and operations, $378,905 in classroom site funding, $1,641,667 in unrestricted capital outlay, $86,523 for soft capital such as textbooks, $130,000 for building renewal, $8.9 million for federal projects and $281,000 for state projects.

Overall, the budget has been decreased, but the district has been able to slightly increase regular education classroom instruction funding by about 1.6 percent.

“Recruiting and retaining highly qualified faculty remains one of the district’s top budget priorities,” Business Manager Garry McDowell noted. “Keeping small class sizes for core academic subjects is another high priority budget item. Significant reductions in non-classroom services have been implemented through natural staff attrition…”

McDowell also pointed out that the state has made significant cuts to K-12 education funding. In the coming fiscal year the Holbrook district plans to use reserve funds to cover the state funding reduction. He noted that the exact amount of the cuts will not be known until June.

State funds account for about 42 percent of the total revenue for Holbrook schools. Federal funds make up about 40 percent of the total revenues. An estimate for the 2011-12 school year reveals that approximately 23 percent of education funding is expected to come from federal grants, 17 percent from federal impact aid, 13 percent from local property taxes, two percent from county school equalization and three percent from other sources.

McDowell noted that the large percentage of federal funding has helped the district avoid massive cuts or layoffs.

Finding the money to cover costs has presented a challenge. McDowell noted that a number of costs have been shifted away from shrinking special funds. For example, teacher salaries, performance stipends and enhanced base salaries that were previously paid out of classroom site funds have been shifted to the maintenance and operations budget. Impact aid is being used to cover part of the cost of textbooks and other supplies since the state legislature slashed soft capital funding.

He explained that the $8.9 million federal projects budget will help the district purchase books and buses, and also helps prevent a property tax rate increase.

McDowell also noted that although the state budget dealt a blow to education funding, the governor’s veto of a bill that would have essentially created a spending freeze is good news for school districts.

“The TABOR (Taxpayers Bill of Rights) would have frozen school funding at or near the lowest in the nation,” McDowell said.

The school board is expected to vote on the budget proposal at a meeting set for 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 10.