District Reduces Budget, Still Exceeds State Cap

The average Lacey homeowner can expect to see a $235 increase in taxes for the year, a reduction from what the Board of Education originally proposed in its preliminary budget.

The district presented a revised version of its proposed budget, which originally increased the local tax levy by 4.9 percent or about $300 for the year to the average homeowner. The board is now proposing a 2.8 percent increase in the local tax levy. The spending plan of $64,524,195 calls for a $41,210,651 tax levy.

The average homeowner, assessed at $316,000, will pay an additional $19.58 per month if the 2013-14 budget is approved as is. A public hearing, in which the board will vote on the budget, is at 6 p.m. Friday, March 22 in the high school Lecture Hall.

'Challenging Budget' Leads to Reductions

This year’s budget process was cyclical, Superintendent Dr. Sandra Brower said.

“It kept going around, and around and around because this was a very challenging budget for us to put together,” she said. “We had to go back and we had to rebuild. We knew that rebuilding was really about reducing, not eliminating.”

The district will be eliminating four teaching positions, one guidance counselor position, two secretarial positions and one administrative position. These reductions amount to a total of $675,000.

While many new initiatives remain in the 2013-14 budget, others areas were reduced. Removed from the preliminary budget were a speech teacher, special education school psychologist, basic skills instruction teacher, a special education learning disabilities consultant, computers for the district’s 1:1 initiative, a teacher technology coordinator, summer leadership and summer guidance, supplies and materials and outside spectator stands.

But a full day kindergarten program at approximately $250,000 and random drug testing at $30,000 still stand.

In the elementary schools, the district will be implementing a pre-K magnet program housing all pre-K classes in one school and new curriculum for language arts and math. In seventh and eighth grades, the district will be replacing an outdated math series.

In high school, the district is preparing for the implementation of block scheduling, having to dedicate approximately $50,000 in funds to preparing curriculum and staff development in the upcoming school year. In addition to the random drug testing, the district will be purchasing a software package so the athletic trainer can conduct baseline concussion testing.

Finally, the district has allocated funds to safe school programs, which includes maintaining front door greeters, implementing new phone communication systems, enhancing surveillance systems and developing response kits for each classroom.

The 2013-14 financial plan adds staff as well. The district will need two kindergarten teachers in order to execute its full day program and a full time district security officer at $30,000. The security officer will perform security and peripheral audits and initiate best practices in each of the schools.

'Paying the Price'

The revisions to the proposed budget cut the total operating budget by approximately $853,457 and the tax levy by approximately $851,882. As a result, the district will only need one waiver from the state for exceeding the 2 percent state mandated cap as opposed to two.

“Over time, this board has been particularly thoughtful about the property tax increase here in Lacey Township,” Brower said. “This year is an anomaly as we’ve been talking about.”

Issues outside of the board’s control is what caused the district to exceed the state mandated 2 percent cap, Business Administrator James Savage said.

• Reduction in State Aid: the district is seeing $30,000 more in state aid than they did in 2012-13 but the total still does not make up for the $3.2 million loss in 2010.
• State Mandates without Funding: for example, the state is imposing new assessments for K-12, which will require computers. On Monday, the board approved a $22,000 contract with Educational Data Services, Inc., for that purpose.
• Increase in Cost of Benefits: there is an increase of 13.3 percent or approximately $750,000. Brower pointed out that employee contributions to the district are approximately $1,000,000 while the district shells out $13,000,000.
• Increase in Debt Service Payments: $1,619,122 for 2013-14 for the solar/roof/boiler/windows project.
• Decrease in Revenue: the district lost $800,000 in revenue due to the drop in the value of Solar Renewable Energy Credits, a certificate sold separately from electricity. The district will earn approximately $200,000 in the upcoming year.

Although above the state cap, the district will not need a referendum to pass the budget since it moved elections to November and the state allows for 14 exceptions. The district will be granted one for health benefits. Originally it sought two—the second for a banked cap due to the decrease in SREC revenue.

Resident Bill Moss called the waiver a “loophole.”

The board can’t control healthcare costs, board member Maureen Tirella said.

“Every year they increase it and there’s no cap on that…We have no control over that,” she said. “We need to cut down healthcare costs. That’s what we need to do.”

Savage explained that 2 percent of the tax levy increase is a result of new initiatives and operating expenses while the remaining .8 percent falls under the waiver for the health benefits.

"You keep spending, spending, spending," Moss said. "When are you going to stop spending? You’re spending something we don’t have."

As long as residents had the ability to vote on the school budget, the spending was kept under control and tax increases were minimal, resident Gaston Fichot said.

“Just from the outside perspective looking in, I wanted to let you board members know that it doesn’t look very good,” he said.

In the district’s second year without a referendum vote, the board is imposing, as Mayor David Most said, a “historic tax increase,” Fichot said.

“It’s cause for alarm,” he said. “It’s cause for the public to take notice and keep eyes on things.”

Over the last five years, the school district has raised taxes a fraction of a percent, and this year, the figures are “very responsible,” board member Jack Martenak said.

“We are paying the price now for having been prudent in previous years,” he said. “But at least I can sleep at night knowing that we did the right thing in the previous years.”

The increase in taxes is necessary to keep the district moving forward, he said.

“What we’ve done the last few weeks is reduce it as much as possible,” President Eric Schubiger said. “And that’s all we can do.”

The budget presentation is attached to this story as a PDF.