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I-S School Board approves 2014-15 budget

The 2014-15 budget was approved by the Iola-Scandinavia School Board at a special meeting on Monday, Oct. 27.

The levy amounts are: General fund – $3.440 million; debt service – $580,000; community service – $52,000.

Budget adjustments were also discussed and approved by the board.

The final budget with adjustments maintains an $86,000 budget deficit for the 2014-15 school year.

The budget was recommended for approval by the Finance Committee, which met Oct. 23 to discuss 2014-15 levy amounts and budget adjustments after certified state aid amounts were released.

The committee reviewed revenue limits, which have been in place since 1993-94 and cap the maximum amount of revenue that districts may generate through state aid and local property taxes. These amounts (state aid and property taxes) make up approximately 88 percent of the I-S School District’s revenue budget.

The three key variables in the revenue limit formula are student membership, equalized property value and state aid.

Student membership drives the formula, so as membership declines, the amount of revenue a district can generate also decreases. The revenue limit formula uses membership based on a three-year rolling average to minimize significant changes in membership from year to year.

District-wide equalized property values decreased by 2.5 percent in 2012-13 and have been steadily increasing in the years following.

The last piece of the revenue limit formula is the amount of state aid a district will receive. The general fund local property tax amount is determined by calculating the total amount a district can generate through the revenue limit formula, less the amount of state aid a district will receive.

The I-S School District has seen a change in how the district is funded.

In 2012-13 and prior, state aid amounts made up more than half of the revenue limit. In 2013-14, state aid made up 50 percent of the formula and in 2014-15, it will be 49 percent.

This results in local property owners beginning to take on a larger portion of funding the district.

The funding formula takes into account the amount of property wealth behind each student in the district.

When state aid is being determined, district-wide equalized value is divided by the number of students in the district. Districts that have equalized value per member greater than the state average receive less funding than districts with lower values per member.

As property values have remained fairly stable and membership has declined, value per member in the I-S School District has seen growth, exceeding the state average and results in a decreased amount of state aid for the district.

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