The Greenwood Leflore Consolidated School District’s chief of finance, Kellia Washington, says every penny is being pinched by the district to try to prevent raising taxes to fund its schools in 2022-2023.
But no one will be certain if the district’s proposed budget increase of $1 million in local funding will result in a tax increase during the upcoming fiscal year until after Leflore County’s property tax assessments are completed this summer.
After the schools’ budget is approved by the end of this month and the assessments are completed, the Board of Supervisors will decide on the countywide tax rate, which will include the school district’s budget. The fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
Washington conducted a public hearing on the budget before the district’s board, school officials and a pair of citizens interested in keeping taxes from rising in Leflore County: John Bush, a farmer, and Bob Morgan, a trust officer for Regions Bank. In that capacity, Morgan participates in farm management.
Morgan sought specifics by asking Washington for the district’s rate of absenteeism. She answered that figure does not come to her office. But she told Morgan that the state funds the district with $6,000 per student per year.
In her presentation, Washington addressed the issue of absenteeism. State funding to school districts is allocated based on the number of students attending school, which is different from the number enrolled at the start of the school year.
“It makes a big difference if they are walking on the street instead of in the classroom,” she said.
The total enrollment this school year was 4,616 but 190 of these were enrolled in Leflore Legacy Academy, which is a public charter school and funds for those students were diverted to the academy.
The estimated enrollment is 3,531 for the upcoming school year. The projected loss in all state funding to the district is just over $1.1 million, according to Washington.
But that’s not all, Washington said, when asked by Magdalene Abraham, a member of the school board, to confirm that the loss was the result of the administration failing to apply to the Mississippi Department of Education for an attendance-based waiver by a Dec. 1, 2021, deadline.
Washington agreed and reported that “given the totality of it all ... the state would have increased the amount per student. ... That was a loss of $3 million.”
As it stands, the budget projects 36% of general fund revenues will be raised through local taxes, including property taxes. State sources will supply 61% and federal sources, 3%. About the latter, Washington said, “We do have money obtained from other federal resources.”
This includes more the $36 million in American Rescue Plan funding. This is restricted to already ongoing renovations and upgrades, such as heating and air conditioning system replacements and bathroom remodeling, after school and summer programs to make up for learning losses during the pandemic, and salaries and benefits for kindergarten teachers.
Also allowed will be the purchase of new school buses, which in part are worn out because of pandemic-related transportation demands, classroom supplies, replacement of athletic scoreboards at the district’s three high schools, and reconditioning and replacement of athletic helmets.
The budget for next year, including the Rescue Plan funds, comes to $102 million, compared to $66 million in revenue this school year.
- Contact Susan Montgomery at 581-7241 or smontgomery@gwcommonwealth.com.
