Superintendent’s Corner

By Cari Guden Budgeting for a school district is a complex task. It involves adhering to various rules, regulations, and limitations to create a budget that both supports our educational program and falls within the limits set by the state.

We have some good news to share regarding our school budget. We also want to explain the changes in the budget and how they impact students and our community.

Good news for taxpayers!

Here’s the good news: During this year’s budget planning, we maintained many of our existing programs and services. This achievement can be attributed largely to the fact that we have an approved operating referendum within our budget calculations. Importantly, we kept the property tax mill rate below last year’s rate.

We spend a great deal of time on the budgeting process. We begin the process internally in the spring, present a preliminary budget in summer, and on October 25, the board of education approved its budget. In doing so, the board set the school portion of the tax mill rate for our district’s property taxpayers. The property mill rate decreased by 28.6%. The approved school tax mill rate went down, primarily because of these factors:

n Property values went up 13.1%. As a reminder, increased property values decrease the mill rate because there is more property value to spread the levy amount over. (The state average is 12.5%, according to the Department of Public Instruction’s finance website.)

n During the biennial budget process, $137.9M was added to the pool of state aid for the entire state. Our portion was $678,000 more than last year. As a reminder, this is not additional money for the district to spend. This money is intended to provide property tax relief, which it did.

n The district’s debt service levy went down. This is the final year the district will levy for the 2011 building projects. The decrease in the school portion of property taxes, coupled with the increase in property value, does not necessarily mean individual taxpayer’s property taxes will go down. Instead, most taxpayers should see relatively steady school taxes from the prior year, but each property is different.

Making the best use of available resources An important factor in the budget is that we have $950,000 of approved funds above our revenue limit from the operating referendum. These funds avoided major reductions to critical programs. We are very grateful to our community for the approval of that referendum.

Our commitment is to use the available resources wisely and provide the best education possible within well-maintained facilities. We continually seek efficiencies while ensuring a balanced budget.

Some key accomplishments of this year’s budget include:

n Increased teacher wages (5.2% teachers) allowing us to offer more competitive wages. (At this time of a teacher shortage, this is essential.)

n Decreased cost of the benefits/ health insurance by switching carriers.

n Increased the curriculum budget for new ELA curriculum, utilizing the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) III funds for curriculum. (These funds end September 2024.)

We also continue to face some budget challenges. Maintaining a flat budget allocation for maintenance upkeep puts strain on our day-to-day operations, particularly in light of escalating expenses such as fuel costs. Despite a recent wage hike for our employees, our compensation still falls behind that of neighboring regions.

Lastly, the continuous struggle to find substitute teachers and support staff remains a significant challenge. Nonetheless, I want to congratulate our current staff for always stepping up and going the extra mile to provide day-to-day coverage for all our schools and classrooms. We truly have a remarkable staff, and we are grateful to our supportive community.

Cari Guden