Racine Sun

Burlington Area School District recently issued the following announcement.

The Burlington Area School District’s school board took action at their meeting on Monday, October 25 to unanimously adopt the 2021-2022 annual budget. With all inputs established for September pupil count, state aid calculation, and property values, the district can finalize the 2021-2022 budget. The public can view the meeting on YouTube and the budget in Board Docs.

The updated 2021-2022 budget shows a $481,685 gap between revenue ($42,124,499) and expenses ($42,606,184). This is less than the $801,700 gap on the budget presented at the annual meeting on September 13.

Ruth Schenning, Executive Director of Business Services, expects the $481,685 gap to shrink because throughout the year, the district carefully monitors its spending to end the year with a balanced budget. Showing a shortfall in the current budget reflects conservative budgeting to account for potential costs throughout the year.

The 2021-2022 budget includes increased health insurance premiums and anticipated increases for utilities and compensation. The district has implemented strategies to contain costs such as a program focused on staff wellness in an effort to lower the impact of rising health insurance costs. Another example comes from completing maintenance and referendum projects which should decrease energy costs. Last year, the district launched a compensation committee to review the existing compensation system and consider potential changes.

The district has also addressed staffing as salary and benefits continue as one of the biggest expenditures. The district has not had to lay off staff but has been using attrition to right-size staff based on enrollment. Every position opening is studied to determine how to fill the vacancy.

The district is required to have a balanced budget, so if expenditures were to exceed revenue at the end of the school year, the school board has approved using the fund balance. The fund balance has, over the course of several years, been growing which reflects careful financial stewardship. The budget adopted on Monday estimates a fund balance at 15.5% at the end of the fiscal year, which is considered a reasonable level.

Though the district works hard to manage its costs, balancing the budget has become more challenging. Wisconsin’s revenue limit for schools has stayed flat, while fixed costs continue to rise. Burlington Area School District is one of several Wisconsin districts impacted by a structural deficit in education funding.

The final 2021-2022 total tax levy at $21,975,532 reflects an overall 1.36% decrease for local taxpayers (though the tax levy will vary by municipality). The district will be able to allocate an additional $1,000,000 toward the referendum debt service. The strategy to pay off debt early will save taxpayers money over the course of the referendum loan. This levy amount is less than what attendees approved at the annual meeting and is the second consecutive year without a levy increase.

“This budget is a happy medium by both providing local tax relief - which was the state’s intention - and allowing funds to go toward debt defeasance which provides a long-term savings for taxpayers,” Superintendent Steve Plank said following the board meeting.

The mill rate, at $8.07, is used to determine individual tax bills. This means that the district anticipates that the mill rate to decrease overall by fifty-three cents. Even with its comprehensive offerings to the community, the Burlington Area School District had the lowest mill rate last year compared to its contiguous districts.

With the budget complete, the district will begin to finalize a proposal on how to invest the federal ESSER funds. ESSER is short for Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Education Relief. The district expects to present a draft of an ESSER III plan to the board in December to detail how the district can utilize ESSER funds for Covid-related learning loss. The district will seek feedback from the public before adopting a plan.

Original source can be found here.