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CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) As the Valley City School district deals with a tight budget, so far there has been no discussion as to whether or not the school district will be forced to cut extracurricular activities to deal with the problem according to Valley City School District Superintendent Dean Koppelman.

Koppelman says the new state school funding formula created a tight budget for the district being it’s tied into per pupil payment following the reduction of property taxes after the 2013 legislative session.

Koppelman says the per-pupil payment was $4,000 last year and moved up to $8,800 this year. But he says the district lost 25 students in 2012 and as of December 2013 the school district is down another 20 students from their fall 2013 enrollment.

Valley City School Board Chairwoman Joyce Braunagel says cutting programs or extracurricular activities is not an option we want to pursue. She says we want to keep the current activities and programs in place.

Braunagel says we are working hard to keep what we have and that’s why we are looking at the budget monthly to monitor the district’s financial picture. She says no one on the school board wants to pursue budget cuts.