The only thing missing at Tuesday’s public hearing about the Greenwood Public School District’s proposed 2016-17 budget was the public.
Two members of the press, a district stenographer, board members Randy Clark and Deirdre Mayes, Superintendent Jennifer Wilson, new district business manager Temeka Jones attended the hearing, required by law since this year’s budget includes an increase in the amount of ad valorem taxes used to fund the district.
Wilson laid out the numbers and the process in a PowerPoint presentation.
For fiscal year 2016, enrollment in the district is up to 2,559 from 2,322 in FY 2015. The district employs 427 people, including 228 teachers, counselors, media specialists and speech therapists, 74 teaching assistants, 20 administrators (central administration and schools) and 105 support staff.
Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) allocations are down from the previous year by about $100,000, and the budget for 2016-17 will increase by nearly $500,000. Juggling federal, state and local funds to make up total revenue, the district is increasing ad valorem tax revenues by $221,874 in the new budget.
That means that a millage rate increase may be required to make up those funds, depending upon final assessed property values and homestead tax exemptions, to be determined in early August by Leflore County Tax Assessor Leroy Ware.
Millage rates for school districts are capped at 55 mills per state law, Wilson said, and GPSD’s current rate is 53.63.
Ware has said in previous weeks that county property values are up this year by some $6 million, due in large part to farm land values, and it’s possible that an increase in the millage rate won’t be required to make up those funds.
Wilson said expenditures for 2016-17 have been budgeted “very conservatively in consideration of our taxpayers and a potential state budget cut.”
No questions were raised about the proposed tax increase or any other information presented.
The GPSD board will meet at 5 p.m. on Aug. 3 to officially adopt the 2016-17 budget.
• Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
