GSCD Budget Inches Down; Levy Going Up For 2018-19

The Glenwood Community School District’s budget is going down next year even as it’s tax levy is going up.

The district’s budget, which will be discussed during a public hearing Monday at the high school media center, is $42.8 million for the 2018-2019 fiscal year that begins July 1. That figure is down just over $600,000 from the re-estimated total of $43.4 million for this fiscal year. The district’s proposed property tax levy is going up to 15.05 (per $1,000 of taxable valuation) from the current rate of 14.01.

Glenwood Superintendent Devin Embray said the levy increase is due predominantly to the district’s new Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL), which adds .85 cents to the tax rate.

“So we’re down in budget but our rates are up a bit,” Embray said.

In February, district voters approved the PPEL, which will allow the district to raise $3.7 million for an overhaul to the Glenwood Athletic Complex. That project is in the design phase for a planned October start date.
The 2018-2019 budget, which represents an estimation of the revenues the district anticipates collecting and the authority to levy taxes accordingly, includes all district funds, projected expenditures as well as projected revenues, including state, federal aid and local tax dollars.

Instruction – which covers a wide array of district expenses including staff salaries and benefits in addition to supplies, maintenance and fuel costs – is the district’s largest line item at $15.2 million, followed by support services ($8.2 million) and other expenditures covering facilities acquisition, debt service and Area Education Agency support totaling $7.4 million. State aid makes up more that 75 percent of the district’s $42.8 million budget, with the remainder coming from local taxes and a fraction from federal funds.

The state education-funding bill has set a 1 percent increase in  supplemental aid to Iowa’s public schools. The small hike raises the state’s cost per regular student funding for the upcoming school year about $66 to $6,730 per pupil.
Embray said the 1- percent increase in state funding next year might not impact Glenwood immediately, but the potential exists for a budget crunch down the road.

“We’re projecting the state supplemental aid is going to stay in that zero to one (percent) range over the next four years,” he said. “We hope to have it be more, but that’s what we’re projecting. We’re also projecting a very slight enrollment increase but that could also be stagnant too. Combining those two things with the cost of doing business going up each year, it puts us in a bit of a pickle.”

That bleak financial picture is the primary reason the board has presented an early retirement incentive to staff over age 55 and with 15 consecutive years of service in the district as a pre-emptive cost-savings measure. Embray said at least 15 staffers would have to elect to accept the early retirement incentive, at a savings of more $400,000, for the plan to be put into place and, hopefully stave off staff reductions.

“It’s tough right now,” Embray said of teaching costs going up while revenues shrink. “You’ve got dedicated and committed staff and you want to keep them in state working in your schools. If enrollments stay as they’ve been, that will increase classroom size. That’s one way to absorb an increased cost.”

With enrollment up 24 students this year, Glenwood will go off the budget guarantee it operated under this budget round when it had to dip into its unspent balance coffers to cover the funding shortfall.

“We don’t think we’ll need to dip into it (the unspent balance) this year but it all depends on where we end up settling with all employee groups,” Embray said. “We’re tracking increased insurance costs. They go up every year and this (the budget) is always a balancing act.”

Embray hopes to have negotiations with the district’s classified employees’ unions and the district’s teachers union completed prior to the April 23 hearing.