PENDLETON — Federal stimulus aside, the Pendleton School District has adopted a budget it considers “status quo.”

On Monday, June 14, the Pendleton School Board unanimously voted to adopt a $60.5 million budget for the 2021-22 school year. The budget’s $44.1 million general fund — the fund used to pay for teachers, supplies and materials and other operational costs — represents nearly an 11% increase from the year before, but district Director of Business Services Michelle Jones said the jump is largely due to federal stimulus for COVID-19 relief.

Jones said the district is using some of its money to hire new staff, including new elementary teachers to alleviate class size limits, staff for the district’s summer remedial program and intervention specialists at all school levels.

The district also is seeing its technology budget double from $862,000 to nearly $1.8 million. Jones said the money is being used to replace Google Chromebooks — every student in the district has one laptop assigned to them — and make other tech investments.

With the federal stimulus expected to be a one-time shot in the arm, Jones said the rest of the budget is fairly status quo.

For now, the stimulus will cover up for the revenue lost from the tax levy, but Jones said it still will need to be addressed long-term. After keeping it in place for years, voters in 2020 rejected the tax levy, which generated $300,000 per year for operational costs. Citing an economic climate that’s still recovering from the effects of COVID-19, the board has yet to put the levy back on the ballot.