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Schools need answers to build budgets |
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Friday, June 20 2008 |
By CHRIS MEYERS
Staff writer
It’s budget time for local school districts, and for some, getting answers to recently passed legislation is proving vital to accurate planning for the coming budget.
“We still can’t get answers on what’s in House Bill 1001,” Tony Zickgraf, business director for Whitley County Consolidated Schools, said at this week’s meeting of the board of school trustees.
At issue is when the newly-passed legislation’s parameters become official and determine the parameters of the budget.
Also affecting school budgets is the mailing of tax statements and receiving tax payments from the state to local school districts.
For the past several years, districts have had to borrow money to make up for losses in certain budget line items while districts wait on tax payments.
“We haven’t had a normal year in the past five years,” Zickgraf said.
For Smith-Green Community Schools, HB 1001, late mailings of tax revenue and a reduction in assessed value for some of the district all have some affect on the district’s budget.
For the part of the district that stretches into Noble County, a loss of about $3 million in assessed value for the area since 2007 was fortunately offset by an increase of about $7 million in value for Whitley County.
Overall, the district has seen a 1.5 percent increase in assessed value, according to Adam Skiles, business and technology director for Smith-Green.
Unfortunately, the district has also seen a cut of about $160,000 from the capital projects fund, and a reduction of about $211,000 in the general fund.
This is usually to be expected though, and is part of the annual process schools go through.
“We always advertise high because if not, we may not get all the revenues available,” Skiles said at this week’s board of school trustees meeting.
Also affecting the district’s budget is having fewer students enrolled than in the past.
For the 2000-01 school year, the district had 1,407 students compared with 1,250 for the 2007-08 year.
“Basically, it’s been a reduction of about 177 students over the past few years,” he said. School officials expect the enrollment for the coming school year to be 1,230 students.
As with many government entities, both school and non-school related, fuel costs are beginning to affect the transportation budget, with 54 percent of the fuel budget having already been spent.
About 80 percent of the vehicle maintenance fund has been spent and the district hasn’t finished all vehicle inspections, according to Skiles.
For now, districts will continue to make changes to their budgets before the final submission date later this summer, and hope they can get all the needed knowledge to make the budgets as manageable as possible.
“We’re trying to get answers, as is every school district in Indiana,” Zickgraf said.
For some schools, it may mean the continued borrowing of money to offset late mailings of tax revenue, or it may mean a different approach to some spending.
“We’re going to need to either increase revenue or decrease expenses,” Skiles said. |
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Last Updated ( Monday, June 23 2008 )
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