The Monticello school district is going to have to deal with budget reductions next year.

Monticello faces an almost $1-million deficit in their expenditures and Superintendent of Monticello Schools, Dr. Vic Zimmerman says that will result in reductions through attrition. He explains the combination of lower revenues from CPPRT and state revenues has led to that deficit in the expenditures.

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Dr. Zimmerman explains he will be recommending to the Board of Education to reduce the budget between $300 and $500-thousand. He adds a lot of the cuts are dependent on enrollment numbers, which are currently high in the high school.

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Monticello High School is expected to graduate more students than the freshman class brings in. Dr. Zimmerman says that is something they will see take place over the next couple of years because of the high enrollment numbers currently in their high school.

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Dr. Zimmerman is optimistic CPPRT will bounce back, but for now they are going to tighten their belts and dip into reserves to cover the deficit. He says if they face back-to-back years of $1-million deficits, and dip into reserves each year, they leave the door open to having less than a million dollars in their reserves, which according to Dr. Zimmerman, is not a situation they want to be in.