By Heather McDonald

Declining enrollment has forced Almond-Bancroft Schools to dip into reserves for so many years to maintain programs and small class sizes, the district now has to turn to the community for funding.

Board members Wednesday, Sept. 20, began initial discussions on holding a referendum in April to ask the community for additional money to continue its programs and reduce the need to use fund balance.

District officials do not yet know how much they will ask for or how to educate the public on why the dollars are needed, but the April referendum would go toward operating costs for the district. That could include money for annual costs like salaries to keep class sizes small and funds to continue offering specific programs; administration and board members stopped short of naming programs or the details that might be involved in the referendum.

“I think we all know we’ve been tightening the bootstraps for a long time … it’s hard to say what’s going to happen, but we’ve been going into that fund balance to keep programs, so what if the referendum doesn’t pass?” said Board President Bonnie Warzynski.

“I don’t see anything else other than cutting programs,” she said.

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