While many school districts are making budget cuts, rural Tracy’s New Jerusalem School District will have a reserve of about $1.1 million next school year.

Superintendent David Thoming said that New Jerusalem, which comprises mainly charter schools, has more economic flexibility than other districts with traditional schools.

The district has 700 students this school year, some of which are at least partially home-schooled. Thoming said that enrollment is sure to grow.

In addition to the $5,700 per student it gets from the state, the district gets $400 per New Jerusalem Elementary and Delta Charter High School student from California through a block grant. According to Thoming, the district has a budget of about $5 million.

"The previous superintendent looked at having a charter school as a way to increase the enrollment for our district," Thoming said. "You can pool funds together and do things like have a music program or have a full-time P.E. teacher or have a well-stocked library that a school can’t afford on their own."

Instead of spending that money outrageously, Thoming said that the district has always practiced financial responsibility. It has set aside a reserve of at least 15 percent of the budget to stay afloat in tough times.

Thoming explained that while many districts ride cycles of hiring and cutting, New Jerusalem held steady.

"We keep our overhead down," Thoming said. "We’re not so big that we have to have five different assistant superintendents doing differing things. We have one small physical site, and that’s all.

"In large school districts, the expenses just start compounding because of the size of everything."

While New Jerusalem School District is growing, Thoming said that the district hasn’t reached the tipping point that larger ones have already passed.

New Jerusalem plans on expanding its bus services, music program and adding more sports. The district runs buses to and from the main part of Tracy twice a day and may expand into Manteca next year.

Earlier this week, Delta Charter High played its first baseball game. The school will add soccer, cross country and volleyball programs in the near future.

New Jerusalem Elementary (with the exception of kindergarten) and the kindergarten through eighth grades of Delta converted to a charter school in the late 1990s. The high school part of Delta became a charter school in 2001 and now has about 100 students.

"I can’t figure out why everybody doesn’t switch to charter," Thoming said. "I really don’t see the downside to charter schools."