The Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District is expected to operate on a $59.4 million budget for fiscal year 2016-17, and officials do not forecast a tax increase despite expenditures outpacing revenues on paper.
SOCSD’s projected budget shows the district expects to take in $55.81 million from local, state, federal and 16th section land sources, while spending $59.4 million on operations, construction and debt service.
The funding gap is a clerical one, SOCSD Chief Financial Officer Tammie McGarr said, since construction funding previously procured will carry over and cover line items present in the pending budget.
School board members are expected to approve the financial guidepost Thursday.
The district operated on a combined 66.05 mill levy in the previous fiscal year, and SOCSD Superintendent Lewis Holloway said he anticipates the district will ask for the same taxing amount again this year.
Oktibbeha County has yet to provide the district with exact millage figures, Holloway said, so he cannot yet define the exact rate needed to cover local funding needs.
The district utilized 55 mills for operational costs in the last fiscal year, while an additional mill supported the Millsaps Career and Technology Center. The remainder was used toward debt service.
Property taxes will fund about $18.78 million in operational costs in the 2016-17 fiscal year, which is about $598,464 higher than in the previous year.
Despite the higher project costs, Holloway said new development hitting the tax rolls should offset the increase.
Ad valorem receipts are also expected to cover $3.32 million in debt service and the $331,767 commitment to the vocational school.
SOCSD trustees approved a $5.49 million bond issuance — the first part of a $16 million-maximum financing package that will help construct a grades 6-7 partnership school with Mississippi State University — on Tuesday. The remainder of the bonds are expected to be sold next year.
Officials have touted the financing package as a tax-neutral way to build the school, improve existing facilities and ease classroom overcrowding issues since previously pledged millage will roll off the books this fall.
Approximately $518,447 is needed for debt payments related those general obligation bonds, and that line item is covered by the $3.32 million sought locally for debt service.
Instruction (46.98 percent) and support services (32.87 percent) make up the bulk of SOCSD’s projected FY 2016-17 expenditures. The remainder is split between non-instructional services (8.14 percent), debt service (6.96 percent), facilities acquisition and construction (4.94 percent) and 16th section costs (.11 percent).
Salaries and fringe benefits remain the district’s largest specific cost, accounting for $35.34 million worth of the pending budget.
If approved, the budget adds a combined $625,000 in new expenses for David Baggett’s assistant superintendent for personnel and secondary curriculum position; a Henderson-Ward Stewart library assistant and secretary; special education teachers at Henderson-Ward Stewart and Sudduth Elementary; a special education teacher’s assistant at Henderson-Ward Stewart; an 8-percent salary increase for cafeteria workers, custodial staff and school safety officers; and a retirement or pay increase for bus drivers.
For classroom supplies and materials, SOCSD will allocate $25 per elementary student, $35 per middle schooler and $40 for each high school pupil. Additional $4.50-per-student allocations are scheduled for art, music and physical education supplies and materials.
Those allocations, McGarr said, exceed a $20-per-student minimum needed to meet accreditation standards.
The district is also allocating $175,195 for library books and supplies, and $175,000 for textbooks. The textbook allocation is $204,245 lower than the previous fiscal year’s amount since costs will be offset by remaining FY 2015-16 funds.
As for revenues, SOCSD projects it will receive 44.34 percent of its total funding from state sources, 42.65 percent from local taxpayers and 12.73 percent from the federal government. The remainder — less than 1 percent — will come from 16th section land revenue.
Local sources, when combined with daily food sales and other revenue streams, should supply the district with a combined $23.8 million.
SOCSD is projected to receive $24.75 million from the state and $7.1 million from federal sources, including Title I and Title II funding, child nutrition initiatives and other grants.
The bulk of the state revenue is forecast to come from a $22.92 million receipt from the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, which is an $115,456 increase from the previous fiscal year. McGarr said the increase receipt is due to a 16 percent uptick in enrollment last academic year.
In the 1990s, school board members dedicated a portion of MAEP funding toward servicing capital improvement debt. The district will allocate $427,586 in MAEP funding for the line item in the fiscal year.
Payments on those debts will end in 2018, and the allocation will become available for use in the district’s general fund.
The district’s budget also builds a path toward shoring up its general fund reserves.
In 2014, the then-Starkville School District’s leftover fund balance — unassigned district maintenance monies — totaled $283,017, or only .9 percent of its budget.
This year, SOCSD is expected to close the fiscal year out with a projected $2.37 million, or 5.73 percent of its budget, remaining.
The district’s pending budget projects the district will end FY 2016-17 with $3.19 in reserves, or about 7.58 percent.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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