By Ryan Storz,

Members of the Crawford County R-1 School Board were given the proposed budget for the upcoming school year on Thursday night.
The budget, which was crafted by superintendent Dr. Tom Sharp and other administration, proposes both cuts and deficit spending.
Proposed expenditures are $8,427,848 and 8,272,840 has been budgeted. He said that figure does not include two more teachers being added.
Sharp also said that the district has roughly an $845,000 deficit from Fund 1 and Fund 2, which he hopes can be offset by money coming in from the state at the month’s end.
He is hoping the district will receive over $300,000 in state aid. That money would be combined with $200,000 from last year’s surplus.
Sharp, who is leaving at the end of the month, warned that the cuts in state aid will affect next year’s budget and the school will likely be deficit spending again.
Board member Kelli Rapp asked if enough was being cut.
“Is it normal to deficit spend, or do we need a balanced budget?”
Sharp said that, when he arrived two years ago, the philosophy of the school board was that if deficit spending was necessary to provide educational opportunities, it would be done.
He said that $300,000 had been pared down from the budget last year and there is a strong effort to set a balanced budget if revenue comes in as it should. “But you have to make an effort to be close to a balanced budget,” he said.
“I think it’s safe to say this year and next revenues won’t be there,” said board member Darrel Bosse.
Sharp has pointed to the state’s declining tax revenue before; but, Thursday night, he added that a record number of income tax returns had been issued in the past year since people made less money in 2009.
Rapp again asked if more cuts were necessary.
“Do we need to be looking at the budget line by line and looking for places to cut? Are we cutting enough?”
Sharp said that he and the administration went through everything, warning that if the budget keeps getting cut, it will negatively affect education. He said that a lot of budget discussion is based around MAP scores.
“Two years ago, it was decided an investment would be made in elementary and middle school test scores,” he said. “It was an area of concern, so we invested more. We got more supplemental services for students and personnel. Programs are funded by performance.”
Rapp, still not comfortable with the proposed deficit spending, asked if she could see proposed budgets over the past five years.
“I want to know if we’re doing enough and if this has been done before,” she said.
Sharp said that he would provide her with the data, but Bosse said that three of the previous budgets included deficit spending.