Facing a nearly $1 billion deficit, state officials made some difficult cuts to health and human services, higher education and public safety last weekend to balance the state budget.

Minnesota schools, however, were not only saved from the ax, but given a small boost in funding.

As part of the state budget bill passed Sunday, the Legislature approved a one-time allocation of $51 per pupil unit for next school year.

Litchfield Public Schools will receive about $112,000 in additional money for the 2008-09 school year. Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City and Eden Valley-Watkins will each tally approximately $45,000 additional funding.

“Basically, we would like to put that back into the district in some way, shape or form to curtail the cuts we’ve made in the last few years,” EV-W Superintendent Larry Peterson said.

The $51 per pupil allocation amounts to a 1 percent funding increase for districts across the state. Added to last year’s K-12 education funding bill, districts will receive a 2 percent funding increase for 2008-09.

The money was originally slated to be taken from an enrollment freeze to Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s Q-Comp program. But after the governor vetoed the state education bill Friday, legislators were able to work the $51-per-pupil boost into Sunday’s budget bill. The $49 million will come partly from excess Q-Comp funds.

The state aid was not a surprise because legislators had talked about it for a while, ACGC Superintendent Keith Redfield said. However, given the state’s economy, he wasn’t certain the state would come through on its offer.

“They told us when they met last year that they actually set that amount to be granted this year. We were told we’d get 1 percent in the second year of the biennium and this is the second year. We’ve been planning on it for over a year,” Redfield said. “But when they were $930 million short of revenue, we all expected they would take it away. We thought it was in jeopardy.”

Districts also will have the option to transfer an additional $51 per pupil from their capital reserve fund to their operating fund.