During this week’s Condition of the State Address, Governor Kim Reynolds proposed a 2.5% state aid increase for public schools — through her announcement that she intends to lobby the legislature for private school scholarships. If the Iowa House and Senate agree, per pupil funding for K-12 education will be $7,600 for general funds — which is used to pay for staff and administrative salaries.

Superintendent Greg Ebeling says the dollars used to fund programming and staff are largely controlled by the number of students served and what the Iowa Legislature determines per pupil annually — and because the latter has lagged behind the cost of running the Pella Schools, Ebeling said in December they are anticipating running in the red for some time.

Ebeling says while the overall financial health of the district remains strong, they’ve had to employ several financial tricks to ultimately stay in that position — and in a few years, they may have to consider more early retirement incentives or more if state aid continues to stay less than three percent each year.