Muskego school tax dips, but that's not all good news
Falling property values are partly responsible
Muskego — The Muskego-Norway School District property tax levy for the 2010-11 school year will not go up the 6 percent officials had initially projected in January. But there is still not a lot to celebrate about the district's financial picture.
Much of the reason for the tax increase being in the neighborhood of 2.4 percent is that the district expects to receive more state aid than it initially planned. But that's primarily because Muskego's property values fell more than values in the rest of the state. And state aid is tied closely to the wealth of a community.
School officials expected $19,936,389 in state aid in January. But they now expect $20,672,929, or $736,540 more.
The total value of property in Muskego fell 1 percent between January 2008 and January 2009, according to the state Department of Revenue compared with 0.5 percent for the state as a whole, said Scot Ecker, the district's director of business services.
"We became less wealthy," he said.
K4 program a factor
State aid also is tied to enrollment. And the district will get a boost this coming school year as it starts an optional kindergarten program for 4-year-olds, which will bring in about 20 more students.
However, the extra dollars generated by the extra students will only go toward offseting startup costs for the K4 program. The program soon will bring in an estimated $1.2 million more in state school aid, Ecker said.
School officials will continue working on the budget until a final spending plan is presented at the district's Oct. 25 annual meeting.
Spending up 1.8 percent
As of now, the 2010-11 proposed school budget stands at $68.5 million, which is 1.84 percent higher than the 2009-10 budget. The proposed spending plan would be supported by a $33.6 million levy.
To help keep the levy lower, officials also propose using nearly $900,000 of the district's fund balance to pay part of the district's debt payment for 2010-11, Ecker said. The district would do the same in two succeeding years as well to reduce the debt.
Using the fund balance for 2010-11 would bring the reserves to $11.7 million, or about 22 percent of the district's total revenues, Ecker said.
The unknowns from officials' initial conservative budget planning January are falling out in the district's favor, Superintendent Joe Schroeder observed. Enrollment is up, state aid is up and the levy is up less than expected, he said.
Positions still will be cut
Despite the relatively good news, the budget trimming that was done earlier this year to erase the anticipated operating deficit will stick, Ecker said.
The equivalent of 3.2 teachers at Muskego High School were laid off. At the same time, however, 1.6 full-time-equivalent Spanish teachers were hired because more students want to take Spanish. The net loss is 1.6 at the high school. In addition, aide time at the high school also was cut.
By the numbers
2.4%
estimated increase over last year in the Muskego-Norway School District levy
6%
increase school officials initially projected in January
1.8%
projected increase in district's budget over last year
Source: Muskego-Norway School District
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I am wondering if there are that many kids at the high school that want to take spanish? I heard that they want to take away the German language and make spanish a mandatory class. If this is true I for one would not allow my child to take this class unless they truely want to learn spanish. Just because their are so many people in this country that refuse to learn the english language in order to communicate, I will not nor will any of my children learn spanish to accomadate this group.
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I am not sure the K4 numbers are correct. At Mill Valley Elementary (just one of the 5 elementary schools) the K4 students are numbering at 30 total (AM & PM).
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I am not sure the K4 numbers are correct. At Mill Valley Elementary (just one of the 5 elementary schools) the K4 students are numbering at 30 total (AM & PM).
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Back to topmolly53150 - Aug 20, 2010 4:54 PM - Report Abuse
LisaAposMT2 - Aug 16, 2010 10:08 PM - Report Abuse
LisaAposMT2 - Aug 16, 2010 10:08 PM - Report Abuse