$1.4M in Cuts to Drop Proposed Parkland Tax Hike to 2.73 Percent

The Parkland School Board was presented with a round of $1.474 million in additional budget cuts at Tuesday night's workshop meeting, which would reduce the proposed tax increase in the 2013-14 school year to below 3 percent if enacted immediately.

The recommended adjustments, presented to board members by Director of Business Administration John Vignone, would reduce the proposed tax increase from 14.16 mills down to 13.94 mills.

That would place the proposed tax increase for the 2013-14 budget at 2.73 percent, down from a 5.82 percent increase presented in February's preliminary budget.

The reductions would bring the total Parkland 2013-14 school budget down to $143.8 million. The preliminary budget was at $145.7 million.

Budget numbers could conceivably drop again between now and June's adoption, Vignone told the board.

"This still allows us to keep all the athletic, arts and academic programs in place. I believe this 2.73 percent [increase] is only going to get better," Vignone said, citing pending assessment appeals, unfunded liabilities that impact the district's fund balance and the Commonwealth's budget.

"We see more positives than negatives in the Commonwealth's budget," Vignone said.

Board members did not have any questions for Vignone concerning the budget, but will have the opportunity to go over the numbers line-by-line during an all-day seminar on April 26.

The latest round of budget adjustments includes increasing the use of the district's fund balance by another $250,00 to a total of $4 million. That will reduce the district's fund balance to $17 million from $21 million.

Savings in debt service, Vignone noted, is saving the district $165,000.

"We've had a lot of luck with refunding bond issues," he said.

Some of the other budget adjustments include:

• EIT revenue adjustment: $250,000

• Non-medical insurance adjustments: $25,000

• Electricity Demand Response Program: $150,000

• Equipment savings: $15,000

• Salary adjustments: $21,518

• Benefit adjustments: $104,535

• Athletic trainer contract savings: $50,000

• Increased athletic gate receipts: $1,600

• Special education: $100,000

"The special education comes with a very high cost. We've got to look at everything, whether it's $5,000 or $10,000," Vignone said. "The [non-medical] insurance adjustments are half a teacher's salary.

Last month, the school district said it would cut four teaching positions through attrition to help balance the budget.

The current 2012-13 budget socked taxpayers with a 3.67 percent tax increase.

The budget schedule going forward is:

• Budget Seminar: April 26

• Proposed Final Budget: May 21

• Adoption of Final Budget: June 25