(6/1) At its May 23 meeting, the Fairfield Area School District (FASD) School Board approved the proposed Fiscal Year 2022-2023 budget .
Business manager Tim Stanton presented the projected revenues and expenditures. Proposed revenues are at $19,836,530 and proposed expenditures are at $19,647,571.
The proposed budget was developed through a collaborative effort with business office staff by reviewing historical trends throughout the district, according to Stanton.
"It is crucial to get a good handle on this year’s budget to accurately project the budget for next year," Stanton said.
The proposed budget does not need to request a millage increase, as there is a projected surplus of $188,959, according to Stanton. FASD’s millage will remain at 11.1305 but based on the adjusted Index, the district could increase millage from 11.1305 to 11.5757, he said.
All revenue and expenditures were budgeted to the estimated actual amounts expected to come in next year. To manage negative varices that potentially may pop up down the line, there is a $100,000 budget contingency line. Under the business office, the contingency line is built for unexpected circumstances and is controlled by the superintendent, Stanton said.
In comparison to other local school districts, FASD has the second lowest tax rates across Adams County, he said.
The district’s three revenue sources are local, state, and federal.
In regard to local revenue assumptions, earned income tax has returned to pre-pandemic levels.
Anticipating COVID-19 would have a huge negative impact on earned income tax due to layoffs, it had previously dropped from the traditional amount of $2.3 million down to $1.6 million.
Real estate tax makes up the majority of local revenue with the school district collecting about 95 percent. The total assessed value increased from the previous year by $7.7 million to generate additional real estate tax of $79,952, Stanton said.
State and federal revenues are consistent with current trends, he said. Federal revenue is based on Title I, Title II, and Title IV grants.
$408,470 of American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP ESSER) funding is built into the budget.
In the expenditure section, the district is seeing $447,000 increases in employee salaries. Fiscal Year 2022 had a $359,690 medical funding holiday that is not included in the Fiscal Year 2023 budget.
FASD is also changing for special education classes to be in-house and not with Lincoln Intermediate Unit (LIU), saving on professional services but adding an additional teacher and two teacher assistants, Stanton said.
Several expense items are one-time occurrences that will not repeat, according to Stanton.
FASD is lower than average in regard to school lunch prices and the PDE advocated for the proposed budget to raise prices, he said. The district is reimbursed for free and reduced lunches and students and faculty are encouraged to take advantage of meals. "They should go through the line, because it's free, and we’ll get $3.31 from PDE," Stanton said. While the average district lunch prices increase is consistently ten cents per year, FASD has not increased meal prices since 2016, he said.
Due to supply chain issues, the district needs to more align with other districts and will look for board approval moving forward in increasing prices, Superintendent Thomas Haupt said.
An important focus is the district has close to a $200,000 surplus with no tax increase, Stanton said.
The board made no vote during the May 9 Board Study Session for the potential 2022-2023 Budget, noting it was important to provide time to ask questions and fully to digest the information.
The final adoption for the proposed budget is anticipated for June 27.
