North Wasco County SD 21 budget committee proposes $60.6 million budget, sets permanent tax rate for board consideration

The North Wasco County SD 21 budget committee on Wednesday proposed an aggregate 2024–25 budget of $60,612,212 and authorized the district’s permanent tax rate at $5.2399 per $1,000 of assessed value, sending the proposal to the full school board after further review.

Committee members spent more than two hours pressing district staff and the new chief financial officer on why large line‑item changes appeared across school budgets. The CFO explained that a recent reclassification of where services and salaries are recorded — driven in part by Oregon Department of Education reporting guidance — made many schools’ budgets look like they had cuts even when the total district spending did not change. "The total amount of budget will be the same. It will just be presented differently," the CFO said.

Members asked for clearer line‑by‑line coding and better public communication before the adoption hearing. One committee member urged caution about approving a budget the public cannot easily verify, saying, "I will not I will vote no to pass a budget where we're not transparent on this." The committee subsequently voted to reconsider a first motion and then moved forward with the revised proposal.

A central fiscal question at the meeting was the district's reliance on a tax‑anticipation note to smooth cash flow. The CFO said the TAN would provide short‑term liquidity before property tax receipts arrive and that repayment is planned in the subsequent budget year. "The tax anticipation note borrowing was one of the first things I did because if nothing else, it will be overdraft protection," the CFO said.

Committee members also highlighted the expiry of pandemic (ESSER) funding and how moving positions onto other funding sources — such as the student investment account (SIA) — changes where salaries appear on district documents. The CFO repeatedly stressed that many apparent reductions represented reassignments between funds rather than permanent eliminations, and said final, corrected documents would be published before the board’s adoption hearing.

The committee concluded by forwarding the aggregate budget and the tax‑rate authorization to the school board and asking staff to publish a clearer, searchable budget presentation and to continue quarterly budget check‑ins for the public. The board will hold a formal budget hearing before final adoption.

Provenance: topicintro SEG 3096; topfinish SEG 3565.