Agenda - 04-26-2011 - 1 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Local Revenues The local budget will require revenues totaling $59,249,690. The Superintendent's Recommended budget is based on the district requesting that the County Commissioners provide the same county appropriation amount as last year, or $36,594,720. The per -pupil appropriation would increase, however, by $31 to $3127. This is due to the state projecting our membership next year to be 11,718 students, or 116 fewer students than it projected for the current year. It also assumes that the special school district tax rate will remain at its current level, $.1884, and that the assessed value of the district tax base will increase by 1 %. There are minor adjustments in other sources for local revenue. In order to fund the $540,985 increase in our local budget, the administration recommends using $1,535,379 of unappropriated fund balance, an increase of $445,379 from the current year. Recommended Changes in District Expenditures for 2011 -12 Continuation Items An increase of $1,211,717 will be required to maintain the current level of services in the district, prior to taking potential reductions into consideration. Although nothing is yet definite, the state is projecting a 7.1% increase in the cost of employees' health insurance ($275,601) and an increase of 10.6% in the employer's match for state retirement ($361,116). We also estimate that $500,000 will be required to maintain the current level of staffing for exceptional education, even with a projected carryover of $500,000 in federal funds. A significant number of positions were funded with ARRA funds and a breakdown is available. In some cases ARRA funds were used to save positions that would have been cut in 2009 -10. Other positions were added to meet the increased need for services as specified in students' Individual Education Plans. In addition, this year a 3 year PEP (Physical Education Program) grant expires, which for the past three years has funded a new position — Coordinator of Athletics and Physical Education. This position filled a void in our administrative organization and provided valuable leadership to our athletic directors and coaches as well as to physical education teachers. With increasing attention being given to the safety of athletes and physical fitness of our youth, we believe that it is essential to maintain this position. Recommended Reductions Five expense lines are recommended for reduction for next year and the resulting savings of $1,183,000 approximates the continuing costs identified above. They include the following: • Delete from the budget the one -time appropriation made by the Board last year from fund balance for evaluation and support of the literacy program ($70,000). • Reduce one full -time and one part -time position for custodial services ($38,000) • Suspend signing bonuses for hard -to -fill teaching assignments ($25,000) • Reduce the budget for utilities due to effectiveness of conservation measures ($250,000) • Reduce the amount of funding budgeted for salaries by 2 %. In recent years we have been under- spending our salary lines by at least this amount due to turnover and vacant positions. Instead of continuing to accrue more and more fund balance, we recommend budgeting salaries at 98% of current levels ($800,000) 1 -2