Mid-Del School District sees $2.3 million decrease in state aid

By Jeff Harrison
Managing Editor

The Mid-Del School District will see a nearly $2.3 million reduction in state aid this fiscal year due to a midyear adjustment to its funding.

The district’s initial allocation of state aid totaled about $47 million, according to state education department records. But as a result of the annual midyear adjustment, the new amount will be about $44.75 million – a reduction of about 4.86%.

Oklahoma adjusts the amount of state aid schools receive each year, after all revenue collections from the previous years and local dollars are accounted for.

Superintendent Rick Cobb said it’s not unusual for the district to see their state aid decrease due to the midyear adjustment. Mid-Del saw a decrease of nearly $1 million last school year. Cobb said this year’s decrease was larger than expected.

“We expected to see a cut of about $2 million and this was nearly $2.3 million,” he said. “When we got the state aid allocation in the summer, we expected it to be cut in the midyear adjustment. Most of it was built into the budget last year.”

Cobb said the district will have to lean on reserves to cover the higher than expected loss.

“We will see a reduction in the carryover at the end of the year and we’ll have to look at our staffing for next year based on our enrollment,” Cobb said. “We’re down quite a few students so we’ll find some cost saving there as well.”

Mid-Del Schools saw enrollment decline by about 3,000 students this year compared to 2019-20. Schools are able to use their highest enrollment or average daily membership over a three-year period for the state funding formula.

“We are still being funded on our student count from last year, but the state aid funding formula decreased the amount schools get per pupil,” Cobb said.

The majority of school districts across the state saw declines in state aid. Choctaw-Nicoma Park saw a decrease of $912,000 or 5.49%, Putnam City lost $4.6 million or 7.57% and Oklahoma City was down about $9 million or 8.43%.

Primarily online school choices were the exception to the rule. Epic Charter Schools saw an increase of $156 million due to an explosion in new students.