Superintendent's Report

Once again, the summer has passed by very quickly and we are looking forward to the first day of school on Thursday, August 19th. Beginning Monday, August 16th all staff will return to school and begin preparations for the 2021-22 school year.

Every August your elected trustees are responsible to review and approve the school budget for the school year. This year your district began budget preparations in April when they decided not to run a levy due to the effects of COVID-19 on our community. This allowed us to use Federal-ESSER II stimulus funds to pay this 121,000 thousand levy. Use of ESSER II funds for this purpose was initially greeted with some skepticism, but after some discussion and pleading at the State and Federal level it was finally approved. I am not aware of any other school district utilizing these funds in this manner, but it does provide some relief for our local taxpayers.

At the August board meeting trustees will adopt a budget for the 2021-22 school year. The district already knows the monetary amount needed to operate their general and transportation funds. However, we do not know the number of mills needed to generate this revenue. During the first week of August we receive your taxable valuation for the elementary and high school district. Once the district receives the taxable valuation we then determine the number of mills needed to generate the budget (a mill is 1/1000 of the taxable valuation).

We are looking forward to educating the youth of Powder River County and as always, feel free to stop by the school at any time.