With a $200 million budget, Hamilton School District’s financial forecast for the next year is relatively positive, but navigating through such a large budget has required administration to start the adoption p
by David Kilby, Special Writer
HAMILTON — With a $200 million budget, Hamilton School District’s financial forecast for the next year is relatively positive, but navigating through such a large budget has required administration to start the adoption process much earlier than other districts.
Working within the two-percent increase cap also continues to be an obstacle, according to district officials.
”It is permissible for the board to adopt a tax levy increase of up to two percent plus fund authorized debt service without public vote,” wrote Kurt Stumbaugh, interim school business administrator, in his presentation.
The public discussion and ratification of a tentative budget will be March 6, and the hearing for the final budget is scheduled for March 21.
The two-percent tax levy cap is $1,972,505 with $2,222,131 in negotiated increases.
The general fund tax levy is currently $98,625,236, and for the 2014-15 school year it tentatively will be $100,597,741.
This does not include the debt service portion of the tax levy, which adds another $4,016,579, making the total tentative tax levy $104,614,320 for the 2014-15 school year.
The tax rate for this tentative budget is $1.9892 per $100 of assessed value. The property owner with a house assessed at the township average of $133,739 would pay $2,660 in school taxes in 2014; which is a 1.993 percent or $52 increase from 2013.
At this point the district does not know how much state aid it will receive in 2014-15, but it estimates the amount will be $73,557,537 — a $193,311 increase from this year.
The third and smallest source of revenue for the budget is health benefits premium sharing, which the district plans to see an increase in from $2,625,000 this year to $4,250,000 in 2014-15.
Expenses in the budget include an estimated $113,328,676 in salaries, or about a $2.2 million increase, and 39,858,463 in employee benefits, or about a $1.9 million increase.
Among the additional needs of the district, Mr. Stumbaugh mentioned common core implementation, teacher evaluations implementation and special education.
He said there is a $329,337 shortfall, but in a $200 million budget that doesn’t alarm him.
He also said the goal is to have the base budget finalized by the holidays.
”It’s all about advanced work and we’re on schedule for that,” he added.
Dr. James Parla, superintendent, said there would be a series of budget meetings before the budget is adopted so each board member can have an opportunity to discuss their concerns.
”Once we have the general framework, there are decisions made and the budget is changed,” he said. “We know we have debt service, capital needs and the electric bill. A lot of the costs we know about up front.”
Mr. Stumbaugh said the purpose of proposing the budget at this point is to have a “navigational fix point”, which is helpful because working with such a large budget is like “crossing the Atlantic in a small boat.”