State aid of $750K will be included.
By: Lea Kahn
School district officials have whipped out their calculators and they are sharpening their pencils, as they begin the final preparations for the district’s proposed 2005-06 operating budget.
While the total amount and tax impact of the budget are not known at this time, School Superintendent Max Riley said he expects to use $750,000 in additional state funding to save taxpayers more than a penny on the tax rate.
The school board plans to hold a series of public meetings on the proposed budget next month, Dr. Riley said. Those meetings are set for Feb. 2, Feb. 9, Feb. 16 and Feb. 28. Two additional meetings will be held in March.
The time and location of the meetings will be posted on the school district’s Web site www.ltps.org.
Dr. Riley said he also plans to post a letter on the school district’s Web site about every 10 days to keep residents up-to-date on key budget-related issues facing the district and the steps that are being taken to deal with them.
Dr. Riley said he expects to use the $750,000 received last year as a revenue source for the 2005-06 budget. Plugging that money into the budget will result in some property tax relief, he said, adding that it amounts to about 1.5 cents on the tax rate to support the budget.
In a June 25, 2004 letter to Dr. Riley, state Sen. Shirley K. Turner wrote that she had obtained $750,000 in state funding for Lawrence "to help ease the impact of the loss of revenue" resulting from Washington Township’s decision to halt sending its high school students to Lawrence High School.
Because the school district received the money after the school district’s operating budget was approved, the money went into the school district’s surplus account. Now, officials can use that money as a revenue source.
The school district’s proposed 2004-05 $55 million budget was shot down by voters in April. The voters’ rejection of the budget sent the spending plan to Township Council for its review. The council cut $174,000 from the budget in June.

