With the cost of education at Suring School escalating faster than the funding to support it, the school district will ask voters Tuesday for an an extra $3.5 million over the next five years.
Tuesday’s ballot will include a referendum to exceed the state-imposed revenue limit by $700,000 for each of the next five years, beginning with the 2015-16 school year.
If the referendum is passed, the increase in taxes on a property valued at $100,000 will be $56 annually, or about $4.67 per month, according to the district.
“It’s like you bringing in a gallon of milk once a month to support our school. That’s my comparable,” Superintendent Kelly Casper said.
For Suring, the state-imposed revenue limit doesn’t allow the district to maintain what it offers now, much less keep up with current demands in education, according to Casper.
“The state keeps on raising the bar. We have Common Core, we have state standards, we have assessments,” she said. “We are behind in resources. We’re not teaching from books that have the Common Core aligned to that, the state standards aligned to that, so we need to update our resources, be it textbooks or e-Books.”
The school district is working to upgrade its subpar showing on the state Department of Public Instruction’s annual report card, which assigns scores to schools and school districts by using multiple measures of accountability. In 2014, the school district earned a 62 rating — Meets Few Expectations, one point away from the Meets Expectations rating. The high school scored 70.3, Meets Expectations, and the elementary school, 60.4, Meets Few Expectations.
The referendum is viewed as a way to fund educational programs and extracurricular activities for students.
Children today are learning with the aid of electronic devices, and the district plans to use referendum funds to invest in technological enhancements, such as iPads and Chromebooks, and the infrastructure to support the new technology.
Staff expenses are another big-ticket item and an area which has experienced cutbacks as budgets got tight. In the past 15 years, a staff of 74 has been whittled to 54, with some of the 54 working only part time. Salaries and benefits of $3.9 million comprised 60 percent of the district’s expenditures for the 2014-15 school year, according to information provided at the 2014 annual meeting.
Services provided by Cooperative Education Services Agency (CESA) totaled $800,000, or 12 percent of the budget.
Transportation, at 7 percent of the budget, costs $450,000 annually in the rural district where buses cover 340 miles of routes each morning and afternoon.
Since the 2013-14 school year, the district has operated with a deficit budget, using money from its fund balance to offset this. For the 2014-15 school year, Casper projects the district will overspend $470,000 and will tap its fund balance to cover expenses. A financial forecast shows a downward trend in the district’s fund balance, leaving the district without that cushion by the 2017-18 school year.
If the referendum doesn’t pass, Casper said the School Board will try again in November, after looking at additional places to save money yet maintain programs.
“If we start making cuts, we’re going to start taking away opportunities. If we take away opportunities, we’re going to lose children, because they’re going to go somewhere else,” said Casper, referring to open enrollment.
Suring has experienced declining enrollment in recent years, which affects the amount of government funding it receives.
“When you look at the (funding) formulas, everything is about enrollment,” Casper said.
In the 2010-11 school year, Suring had an enrollment of 483 students; today’s enrollment is 393. Projections indicate continuing declines, with 367 students forecast for the 2019-20 school year.
The last time the School Board held a referendum, in 2012, taxpayers granted overwhelming support. The district levied its final $300,000 for a roof replacement referendum this year, making the net effect of the proposed referendum $400,000 each year.
“It’s perfect timing because we’ll be coming off that roof referendum,” Casper said.
The 2015 tax rate that incorporates the referendum is projected to be $7.43 per $1,000 equalized valuation; the 2014 tax rate was $6.87.
Considered a “property rich” school district, Suring receives about 13 percent of its financial support from the state and 65 percent from taxpayers, due to the way in which land is assessed. High values are attached to the vacation property in the northern area of the district.
The school district is hoping the taxpayers will dig a little deeper to support education and will approve the referendum, promoted with the slogan of “Believe in our Future.”
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