The Greenwood School Board Thursday approved the budget for the upcoming school year, including a 3.3 percent increase in property tax revenue.
The budget, which projects a slight end-of-year surplus of about $2,000, includes more than $400,000 in cost savings from staffing cuts in the district.
The board approved the budget, including the tax revenue hike, by a 3-1 vote, with Samantha Milton the lone dissenter. Milton did not speak during the meeting or indicate why she voted against the budget.
Madalyn Johnson, the district’s business manager, said that the savings in personnel costs were largely due to the closing of W.C. Williams Elementary School, which resulted in job cuts for a number of district employees.
The budget was largely unaltered from the projections presented to the board at its July 9 meeting. Johnson said that the property tax revenue increase should bring in $177,188 for the district, while state appropriations have risen by $715,595.
The decreased payroll costs for the district come despite a state-mandated $1,000 teacher pay raise, which goes into effect during the coming school year. Among the costs projected to rise during the coming year are textbooks, supplies and professional development expenses.
“Depending on how much we tighten our belts, we possibly could see some further savings during the next year,” Johnson said Thursday.
Board President Bill Clay praised Johnson and the rest of the administration for what he said must have been “a tremendous amount of work” in paring expenditures and balancing the budget. At one point during the past school year, the district was facing a projected shortfall of about $800,000.
“That simply says to me that some midnight oil has been burning,” Clay said.
The final budget figures for the 2014-2015 fiscal year — which ended June 30 — are not yet available. A report distributed Thursday said that about 80 percent of the budget had been spent by the end of June, but it could take until August or September before all outstanding invoices are filed and paid and the district’s accounts are fully reconciled.
In other business Thursday:
• Johnson encouraged the board members to support Initiative 42 — a ballot measure that would require the state Legislature to fully fund the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP), the state’s public school funding formula.
Johnson said that chronic shortchanging of MAEP — which has been fully funded just twice since it went into effect in 2002.
“Part of the reason that all school districts across the state are having to go into their fund balances is because we don’t have full funding of MAEP,” Johnson said.
• The board formally accepted Kathy Whicker’s resignation. Whicker, who’d served on the school board since 2012, submitted her letter of resignation on July 10. The previously five-member school board will continue operating with just four members for the foreseeable future. Greenwood Mayor Carolyn McAdams said she wouldn’t appoint a replacement until after a critical state audit of the district is resolved.
• Contact Bryn Stole at 581-7235 or bstole@gwcommonwealth.com.
