Granton school tax rate to decrease, pool loan almost paid off
By Cheyenne Thomas Back in 2018, the Granton School District completed a $2 million project to renovate the school’s pool which was in need of repair. With the approval of the district’s budget at the district annual meeting on Oct. 21, that loan will be completely paid off this upcoming budget year, a full year earlier than originally planned. Even with the debt being paid off, residents can expect to see a decrease of 1.29% on their property taxes this year.
Four residents in attendance at the meeting voted to approve the Granton school budget of $4,519,603, of which $473,166 will come from local property taxes. The levy for this year will be $172,603 less than the levy from 2023-24, and will drop the mill rate from $5.76 per $1,000 of property value to $5.03 per $1,000 of property value. For a $100,000 home, that would equal out to a savings of approximately $73.
Granton School District Administrator Nancy Popp said there were several changes from last year that impacted this year’s budget. In the 2023-24 school budget, there were many one-time large maintenance projects that the district took on that will not be in the budget this year. Improvements to the district’s elementary parking lot, equipment for the school’s new electric buses, garage work, sidewalk repairs and repairs to the canopy outside the school field house were all projects she listed that were completed last year and wouldn’t be impacting this year’s budget.
In addition to the projects, Popp said there were a few changes made to teaching positions in the past year that impacted the budget. While some costs went up, such as CESA 10 services for special education, reading specialists and a school psychiatrist, new positions were added such as a second 4K teacher, there were several positions that were cut or reduced. The school reduced hours for the school nurse, special education, music and tech support.
“We also decided to give staff a three percent raise that was not given to them this spring,” said Popp. “We wanted to be able to do that for our staff.”
With this year’s budget, $351,185 will be used in the district’s debt service fund to pay off the remainder of the district’s $2 million loan one year early for the pool project it completed in 2018. Since the loan was a Qualified Zone Academy Bond (QZAB) loan, there was no interest rate on the loan.
After the budget was approved, the residents in attendance also approved a $50 raise to the salaries of the school board members. The president, clerk and treasurer will now receive $1,765 per year and the vice president and member will receive $1,701 per year for their work.
