Diminishing property values and lower state aid have put a crimp in the budget process for the Emporia school district.
The district expects to ask for a 2.55-mill increase for the 2010-11 school year, plus an additional 2.5-mill increase that will pass through to the Emporia Recreation Commission.
The ERC does not have taxing authority, so it receives funds through the school district. The ERC’s usual 4-mill levy has been increased to 6.5 mills, to help the commission maintain its recreation programs, equipment and other basic needs for the public.
The change bumps the school district’s mill levy from 50.7 to 53.3 mills, not including the ERC levy.
One mill raises approximately $166,820 within the Emporia school district.
School board members during a special meeting Wednesday morning voted 5-0 to publish notice of a public hearing on the budget. Two members — Mike Helbert and Amy Scheller — were not able to attend the special meeting and the study session that preceded it.
The public budget meeting will be at 6 p.m. July 28. It will be followed by a budget hearing at 6 p.m. before a regularly scheduled meeting of the board. During the regular meeting, members will consider approving the budget.
Assistant Superintendent of Finance Rob Scheib handed each board member a thick binder of financial data, and explained the situations that contributed to some of the more-important aspects of the $30,170,000 budget.
That budget is less than the $32,655,000 spent in the 2009-10 school year and the $34,870,000 spent in 2008-09.
The mill levy to finance part of the public schools’ expenses must rise to compensate for the drop in assessed property values. Valuations — on which mill levies are based — are down in the area. Still, Emporia’s values have remained more stable than valuations in other areas across the state.
“Garden City’s valuation went down $30 million,” Scheib said to illustrate the numbers. “Ours went down $6 million.”
Scheib said that the district wants to budget for about 20 more students for the upcoming year, because changes in neighboring districts may bring in students who live outside Emporia’s boundaries. The district already has received numerous inquiries and some applications to attend Emporia schools.
The proposed budget bumps student numbers up to 4,200, from 4,180.8 during the last school year. He estimated that the outside students could generate about $70,000 in additional funds from the state, if they attend here. If they do not, the budget can be cut accordingly; the budget cannot be increased after it is approved, without another vote and re-publication.
“It does give us that budget authority if the kids do show up,” Scheib explained.
District officials are hoping to refinance capital-outlay bonds from 2001 to gain a lower interest rate while staving off a $4-million-plus payment coming up during the 2011-12 budget.
“It won’t help this September, but will the next,” he said.
On the plus side, the district will be free of an older bonded indebtedness when it pays off other bonds in 2012.
The upcoming budget year will be the last one in which the district receives a facilities weighting bonus — $65,395 — for the classroom additions and other work done at Village School.
The budget under consideration now anticipates that basic state aid per-pupil will continue to be at its current level, $4,012. That figure is down from the $4,433 that had been allowed initially two years ago, before the Legislature and the governor began trimming back school aid because of plunging state revenues.
The district did some of its own trimming last year when it eliminated a total of 23 jobs for a $1.4 million savings. This month, however, the district reduced its contingency reserve fund — $3,245,748 — by $1,138,934 paid to some employees who accepted bonuses and other incentives to retire last spring.
The contingency reserve balance will stand at $2,106,814 when the payments are made this month.
Scheib said the district continues to have a large percentage of students who receive free lunches. He expects this year’s count to be around 60 percent.
“But we hardly have any kids on reduced lunches, and our total number of kids eating school lunches goes down,” Scheib said.
At Emporia High School, officials have instituted a “Snack Shack” stocked with pizzas, subs and other foods for students to purchase.
“If they’re choosing not to eat the reimbursable meal, at least they’re eating something,” he said.
District financial specialists have worked to keep a bit of reserve built into the budget, in case funds do not come in as projected or expenses increase unexpectedly. The reserve is not an interest-bearing account as a savings account would be, but more of a nest egg in case of hard times.
“If we take a big hit in our general fund,” Scheib said, “then the board has the flexibility to avoid a train wreck.”
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lyon (anonymous) says...
how about cutting cost by not starting school so early...Look at Chase County and Southern Lyon County. Why do the elementary schools need to get out early every Wednesday?
August 9, 2010 at noon ( permalink | suggest removal )