School district floats $130M budget

School officials floated a $130 million school budget for 2014-15 at Tuesday’s Board of Education work session, which maintains all school programs and raises the tax levy 3.75 percent. The presentation sparked little debate from parents, but board trustees expressed their disappointment in the lack of cuts, calling the model unsustainable.

Because of the increased cost of benefits, the debt service on the school preservation plan serial bond and other contractual obligations, the budget will increase by $6.9 million, or 5.6 percent, over the current year’s, to approximately $130.7 million.

In an effort to promote transparency and better understanding of the budget process, the district decided that, rather than present one report to the public, administrators would offer the components of the budget in smaller, more digestible presentations. Beginning last October, district officials detailed anticipated expenditures and revenue, the tax levy and recommendations for next year’s curriculums.

With only two weeks between this week’s draft budget proposal and the board’s vote to adopt the spending plan, however, some parents said that they thought the district waited too long to release its final numbers. Superintendent David Weiss countered that although the draft budget was presented about two weeks earlier last year, all of the aspects of the budget have been explained over the past few months.

A budget workshop is scheduled for April 2, and the board will vote on the plan on April 8. The public budget vote is set for May 20.

The budget’s only increase in personnel services stems from the step increases, or periodic wage increases, that the district is obligated to give contractual employees. The only staffing changes that are being proposed deal with adding or eliminating grade sections due to enrollment. The increase in personnel costs for the coming school year totals about $3.4 million.