The Merrill Area Public Schools Board of Education approved a preliminary budget Monday night that will see the cost to area taxpayers go up by $.66 to $8.39 or 8.54 percent for the 2009-10 school year.
Even as the board approved the budget that will be presented to area voters at the annual meeting July 26, many of the final numbers were not known. Gov. Jim Doyle had just signed the 2010-11 bi-annual budget earlier in the day and the Department of Public Instruction had not released all the final figures of school aid districts can expect. Further complicating the arriving at the final local budget figures are 81 vetoes Doyle made in the budget and some information such as assessed value of property in the district not being known until October.
Outgoing MAPS Superintendent Dr. Sally Sarnstrom admitted that several of the figures used to arrive at the final tax levy of $10,039,704 were based on conservative estimates. She told the board it was better to use such figures, such as assuming zero growth in property values, then guess wrong and have to tell voters the levy rate is going up rather than down.
It is only the second time in Sarnstrom’s six years as superintendent that the levy rate has increased rather than decreased. She said the blame is mainly due to the state not fulfilling its pledge to fund two-thirds of the operating costs of schools in the state under the new budget.
“Every year I’ve been here, the levy rate has declined except 2007-08 and that was when the state didn’t fund at the 66 percent rate, it was an aid thing,” Sarnstrom said. “This year it is again increasing and again it’s an aid thing.”
The 2009-10 budget that the board approved Monday by a 9-0 vote represents a total of $1.4 million in cuts from the previous school year which ended Tuesday. The board has been working on the 2009-10 budget since last August and had to scramble in the last month to make additional cuts when the state budget deficit was found to be steeper than previously projected. As the budget process in Madison progressed, the board outlined possible “worst case scenario” cuts that it could make if state aid declined in several areas.
“Tonight it’s just a matter of pulling it all together,” Sarnstrom said. “There are no surprises; these are the items you’ve already approved.”
In the end, the cut from the state that hurt the most was the allowable increase in revenue of only $200 per pupil rather than $300 as in previous years. The 2009-10 MAPS budget projects a decline of 50 students from last year, although the district saw a slight bump in numbers last year.
One of the vetoes that Doyle used Monday before signing the state budget had to do with the Qualified Economic Offer criteria that govern what school districts must offer teachers in the way of salary and benefits. Sarnstrom said the district had received information about that veto literally within the hour of the start of Monday’s meeting and hadn’t had a chance to study how the measure will affect the district.
“We’ll be getting more information in the next few days about what all the vetoes mean,” she said.
The same is true for the exact dollar amounts for many components of the state aid the district receives in various grants and other revenue sources. The aid form in the budget book presented at the meeting had the word “unknown” in most of the spaces where dollar amounts should be.
“In all my years, I’ve never had an aid sheet like this. There are a lot of unknowns right now because the state hasn’t released all the figures yet,” she said.
Many of the unknown figures will be filled in on that form and in other places in the budget by the annual meeting. Additional amounts, such as assessed local value of property, will be released just before the board must give the final approval to the budget in October.
Sarnstrom said that while the levy rate is showing an 8.54 percent increase next year, some districts are seeing over 10 percent in hikes in the levy rate. She said that while the district had no part in the hike in taxes – the triggers were caused at the state level – the board members should be prepared to answer questions from voters on the increases.
She also said that based on what figures have come out of Madison so far, the district will be faced with making almost another $1 million in cuts for the 2010-11 school year budget.
Copies of the proposed budget can be examined at the MAPS Central Office. The annual meeting and budget hearing will be held July 28 at 7 p.m. in the high school auditorium.