By KARI BLURTON
Hays Post

A cycle of “robbing Peter to pay Paul” is how Superintendent Dean Katt explained Hays USD 489’s current budget problems.

At Monday’s USD 489 Board of Education work session, Katt said the district is still more than $200,000 short after spending nearly $395,000 in contingency funds to make up for budget errors that happened over a period of time.

According to Katt, as staff and auditors looked into the issue, it was discovered that past administrators frequently were using funds from one fiscal year in order to pay an expense from a different fiscal year, for example. Katt also said the district didn’t meet enrollment expectations, and seventh grade sports were not included in a budget.

Katt said other expenses weren’t budgeted for this year, such as raises that were given at 1.8 percent but budgeted at 1 percent. Cheryl Shubert, director of accounting, said the budget was written before the board approved the raises.

Board President Greg Schwartz stressed the board and district staff are working hard to correct the problem, but a fix to the districts budget gap will “not happen overnight.”

Schwartz and board member Josh Waddell recently met with the district’s auditors and had what Schwartz called a “long and productive” meeting.

USD 489 Board President Greg Schwartz

Schwartz said he asked auditors to include more board members in the yearly audit and take a look of what funds can be carried over so the district budget can get out of the red.

Auditors will have more information at the board’s Jan. 27 meeting.