Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Sara Marcotte, business manager for Houghton-Portage Township Schools, gives a presentation on the 2021-22 budget, which the board approved Monday.

HOUGHTON — The Houghton-Portage Township Schools Board approved a budget for the 2021-22 school year Monday, as well as revised 2021 budgets.

For the coming year, the district projects $12,213,154 in revenues and $13,671,452 in expenditures, leaving a fund balance of $2,724,935.

The state aid grant is expected to increase from $8,111 per student to $8,211, said Business Manager Sara Marcotte. However, enrollment is expected to drop by about 30 students.

The new Copper Island Academy charter school is expected to account for 10 students at the most, Superintendent Doreen Kramer said.

The 8.5% decline in revenues, incoming transfers and other transactions is also driven by an expected decrease in COVID funds.

Expenditures rose by 0.7% over the revised budget for the current year. The district will replace two retirees. It will also add a high school English position that had been eliminated a couple of years ago, and a social worker/counselor. The district still has about $575,000 in COVID money that needs to be spent, much of which will go towards technology and the social worker position, Marcotte said.

Monday night, the board also approved hazard pay for employees who worked during the 2020-21 school year. Full-time employees received $1,000, while part-time workers received $500.

The revised 2021-22 budget shows the district with a general fund balance of more than $3.18 million, up from the $1.35 million that was forecast. Most of that has to do with greater than expected revenues from state ($11.65 million versus $9.76 million) and federal sources ($775,031 versus $197,000).

The board had budgeted last year with expectations of a rumored $1,000-per-student cut in state aid, which didn’t happen, Marcotte said. The district also received $593,000 in COVID funds it hadn’t known about last June.

Expenditures went up $453,629 to $13.32 million. Much of that came from additional COVID expenditures, concentrated in the basic program and operation/maintenance areas.