The Bethel School District Budget Committee unanimously approved the district’s $164 million budget on Wednesday, May 13 — a slight reduction from the previous year.
The budget proposal, which now goes to the Bethel School Board for final approval, calls for cutting three full-time equivalent positions and closing Shasta Middle School at the end of the current school year. In addition, four vacant positions in business services, technology, facilities and nutrition services will not be filled.
Bethel will use almost $800,000 of its contingency fund next year to continue to employ Shasta Middle School teachers as the building closes, and therefore “overstaff” the middle school level. The district is projected to end this year with an ending fund balance of $9.8 million. The balance is 13.4% of its general fund, about $800,000 more than the district had projected it would end the year with…