Friday, July 13, 2012

Duneland Schools' 2013 Budget Similar to 2012

From the Chesterton Tribune:


Duneland Assistant Superintendent Dave Pruis was less than enthusiastic Thursday in starting talks with the school board about the 2013 budgets for the Capital Projects Fund and Bus Replacement Funds.

Starting the summer tradition of drawing up the annual school budget, Pruis gave a preliminary overview of what to expect for the two funds which are primarily paid for by local property taxes, and it’s a lot of déjà vu, with continued funding cuts from the state.

The CPF fund, which pays for professional services, building and land acquisition, construction improvements, maintenance of equipment, emergency allocations and other items, totals $10,378,124 in the 2013 budget, approximately the same as that sought for 2012.

Pruis expects Duneland have just $8.2 million in the CPF in line with what the state appropriated the fund last year.

Larger items in the CPF: $2 million for rental of buildings, facilities and equipment; $1.6 million for building acquisition, construction and improvements; $1.5 million for equipment maintenance; $1.4 million for technology purchases; and just over $1 million for utilities and property and casualty insurance.

Pruis reminded the board that these are just projections and the line items will likely be tweaked by the state, then brought back to the school board for final review later in the fall. Budget adoption is tentatively set for Monday, Oct. 1.

“As always, we’ll construct a budget we can fund and we will be in the black,” Pruis said.

Meanwhile, the Bus Replacement Fund calls for replacing five regular 66-passenger school busses this year and a 27 passenger mini bus. Pruis said he also made an appropriation for a 48-passenger special education bus, at a total cost of $631,000, but said he is doubtful the state will fully fund the request, as was the case last year.

State legislation requires the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance to set a maximum levy for the Bus Replacement Funds.

Duneland Superintendent Dirk Baer repeated the comment that the schools must now approve 12-year bus replacement funds, instead of the previous 10-year plans. He said harsh winter weather has caused the buses to rust to the point where they are inadequate and maintenance costs have continued to spike.

Board President Janice Custer griped at the fact the state reported having a $2 billion surplus this year when some of that money could have been used to help schools which need it.

“If you don’t spend it on roads and schools, you’re going to have a lot of extra money,” she said.

Adding to the grievances, Baer said the tax caps have stunted revenues to the CPF and Bus Replacement Funds and the corporation will have to make do with lower revenues.

Preliminary reviews for all 2013 budgets, including the General Fund, will be made at the board’s next meeting on Aug. 13, followed the Budget Review/Authorization to Advertise either Monday or Tuesday, Aug. 27-28 and a public hearing on Monday, Sept. 10.

The 2013 General Fund will not yet be affected by the recent referendum approving an increase of .22 cents per $100 of assessed value on property. Those additional taxes will not be collected until next year.
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http://chestertontribune.com/Education%20Duneland%20Schools/duneland_expects_new_school_budg.htm