{"id":9916,"date":"2012-08-16T07:30:17","date_gmt":"2012-08-16T13:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=9916"},"modified":"2012-08-15T23:05:39","modified_gmt":"2012-08-16T05:05:39","slug":"nampa-school-district-dug-a-2-8-million-hole-are-state-budget-cuts-to-blame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/08\/16\/nampa-school-district-dug-a-2-8-million-hole-are-state-budget-cuts-to-blame\/","title":{"rendered":"Nampa Schools Dug A $2.8 Million Hole.  Are State Budget Cuts To Blame?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_7544\"  class=\"wp-caption module image left\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"While voter turnout was low across much of Idaho, more than 40 percent of Rockland voters went to the polls.  Eighty percent supported the school levy.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/05\/Vote-Here.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7544\" title=\"Vote Here\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/05\/Vote-Here-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/05\/Vote-Here-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/05\/Vote-Here-620x465.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Molly Messick \/ StateImpact Idaho<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">When Rockland voters went to the polls in May, 80 percent supported the school levy.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong><\/strong>The Nampa School District has discovered a budget problem.<\/p>\n<p>Last school year, due to an accounting error, it spent $2.8 million it didn&#8217;t have.\u00a0 <em>Boise State Public Radio&#8217;s<\/em> <del><\/del>Adam Cotterell <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boisestatepublicradio.org\/post\/nampa-schools-blame-accounting-error-28-million-shortfall\" target=\"_blank\">has the full story.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><del><\/del>The given reason for the error is worth special note at <em>StateImpact<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Superintendent Gary Larson tells Cotterell <del><\/del>the miscalculation came about because the district&#8217;s finance team is understaffed.\u00a0 As state funding for districts fell in recent years, Larson says, he decided to leave some finance department positions unfilled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the time it was a signal that we are in this together, the district office and the schools,&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boisestatepublicradio.org\/post\/nampa-schools-blame-accounting-error-28-million-shortfall\" target=\"_blank\">Larson says<\/a>. &#8220;Well, as a result it impacted our finance department and I think we got too thin, and because we were thin I think we made these human errors.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content alignright\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/05\/21\/tiny-idaho-town-ponies-up-but-its-school-still-suffers\/\">Tiny Idaho Town Ponies Up, But Its School Still Suffers<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/07\/23\/9214\/\">How Funding Rural Idaho Schools Became \u2018Not Unlike a Barn-Raising\u2019<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/04\/18\/economist-mike-ferguson-questions-whether-idaho-is-adequately-funding-education\/\">Economist Mike Ferguson Questions Whether Idaho Is Adequately Funding Education<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/04\/IMG_0266.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/topic\/idaho-center-for-fiscal-policy-2\/\">Resource: The Idaho Center For Fiscal Policy<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p><del><em><\/em><\/del>It&#8217;s unclear whether there&#8217;s a straight line between the Nampa district&#8217;s short-staffing and its budget errors.\u00a0 However, this story falls into a general category of stories we&#8217;ve reported in recent months.<\/p>\n<p>In the small town of Rockland, in southeastern Idaho, funding for the local school district has fallen by 20 percent in the last three years.\u00a0 There, local <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/05\/21\/tiny-idaho-town-ponies-up-but-its-school-still-suffers\/\" target=\"_blank\">voters have passed the highest levy rate in the state<\/a> to keep their school afloat.<\/p>\n<p>In Council, Idaho, local loggers and tradesmen have volunteered their time and labor to help <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/07\/23\/9214\/\" target=\"_blank\">reopen the shop program<\/a>.\u00a0 In that district, state funding has fallen by more than 25 percent in the last four years.<\/p>\n<p>Both are examples of state cuts leading to local costs.<\/p>\n<p>In Nampa, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boisestatepublicradio.org\/post\/nampa-schools-blame-accounting-error-28-million-shortfallhttp:\/\/\" target=\"_blank\">Cotterell reports<\/a>, the school district is appealing to voters to approve a $1.6 million levy. However, that money is designated for curriculum improvements.\u00a0 To make up the newly discovered $2.8 million shortfall, the district will cut back.<strong>\u00a0 <\/strong>And Superintendent Larson says that will leave still more positions unfilled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Nampa School District has discovered a budget problem. Last school year, due to an accounting error, it spent $2.8 million it didn&#8217;t have.\u00a0 Boise State Public Radio&#8217;s Adam Cotterell has the full story. The given reason for the error is worth special note at StateImpact. Superintendent Gary Larson tells Cotterell the miscalculation came about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":7544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[56,236],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9916"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9930,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9916\/revisions\/9930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}