Longview’s $108 million college finances places emergency funds to tech, security | Training
Bowen said money will play for things like tutoring, afternoon programs, Chromebook replacements and repairs, HVAC improvements, and increased cleaning.
While enrollment is canceled, the emergency funds can be used to offset the loss of government pay-as-you-go funding. Government funding for public schools is based on enrollment, and prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Longview’s enrollment was “relatively flat” for many years.
There were 6,488 enrollments in the 2019-2020 school year, down to around 6,155 in the 2020-2021 period. Bowen said the district hopes enrollment will stabilize through the 2022-2023 school year. The 2021-2022 budget estimates 6,246 students enrolled, a slight increase from this year.
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District spokesman Rick Parrish told TDN that the opportunity to make up for the loss of enrollment was “huge”.
“It allows us to keep programs for children going through these turbulent times,” he said.
Bowen said the district had also received aid to help with special education and transportation as the decline in enrollments hit special education funding as well.
Overall, the 2022-2022 budget provides for $ 53.1 million for basic classroom education, $ 14 million for administration and support, $ 15.6 for special schools, and $ 3.4 million for Food and $ 3 million will be spent on transportation. The district expects to spend approximately $ 18.6 on grants or other specialized programs such as CTE, the bilingual program, and the high-level program.