Farmington Area School District is starting work on its 2007-08 school year budget. As you may have seen, about $500,000 in spending was either cut, delayed or paid for with alternate funding sources in the middle of this year as a way to protect the district's reserve fund. We were able to do so without affecting classrooms, and we'll search for a way to do the same next year, even though we'll have to find additional cuts to balance the 2007-08 budget.

Many of you may wonder why a sports and wellness center is being proposed at the same time budget cuts are being considered. In Minnesota, districts are required to keep money for construction separate from money for operating schools. For that reason, dollars designated for building the new high school, for instance, can't be used to pay for teacher salaries. Passage or failure of a bond referendum to build the sports and wellness center won't help us or hurt us in terms of hiring teachers, supporting programs or otherwise operating our schools.

As this demonstrates, it has never been more important for residents to be as knowledgable as possible about district finances. As we do every year, we start the budget process with the formation of committees that look at specific parts of the budget - high school instruction, athletics, community education, curriculum, etc. Residents are invited and encouraged to be part of those committees. It is a great opportunity to see how the district builds its budget, what outside forces determine what we can and can't do for students, and how priorities are determined and addressed.

Finance and budget information can be found on our Web site – www.farmington.k12.mn.us/services/finance – along with information about joining a budget committee. Take a look and let us know what questions you have about school finances.

The Classroom is a continuous discussion on Farmington Public Schools brought to you by Thisweek Newspapers Online. Find it at a link from www.thisweek-online.com.

Brad Meeks, District 192 superintendent of schools