Tecumseh School Board approves $24.1 million budget

At a budget hearing before the regular Monday, June 23 school board meeting, the Tecumseh School Board unanimously approved the 2014-2015 general fund budget of $24,164,881. The 2014-2015 budget is $71,125 more than the final revised budget of the previous year. The majority of the district’s revenue is generated from the state’s foundation allowance (per-pupil funding), which is expected to increase to $7,251, up from $7,026. The increase includes $50 per student to offset the increase in the retirement rate the district receives while projecting an additional $70 per student in pupil performance funding; however, it will be October before the state makes the final determination on that funding. “While they [the state] projects it, it doesn’t mean… we’ll actually receive that,” said Judy Pfund, Director of Business Services at Tecumseh Public Schools (TPS).Currently, TPS is anticipating a decrease of 41 students from the previous year count of 2,911 students. The revenue for the 2014-2015 general fund budget is projected to be $23,786,368, representing a $237,008 decrease from last year’s final revised revenue, even though total taxable value increased by 1.15 percent. This means general fund expenditures exceed revenue by $378,513. With a fund balance of $4,917,434 plus projected revenue, the district has $28,703,802 to appropriate for 2014-2015 and is expected to have $4,538,821 left in the bank at the end of the 2014-2015 budget year. Eighty percent of the budget expenditures are employee-related. “Salaries and fringe make up 70 percent of our budget. Health insurance costs went up about eight percent, which, state cap aside, a lot of that is passed onto the employee,” said Pfund. The middle school is the most expensive building in the district to operate with an expected expenditure of $5,283,838 followed by the high school at $4,832,977. Before approving the 2014-2015 budget, the board approved a few revisions to the 2013-2014 budget. The final revised general fund budget for 2013-2014 was $24,093,756, $355,654 under what was projected during a previous revision on March 10. “With not having school be in service, six days of transportation saved $35,000 by having to reschedule those days,” said Pfund. Transportation cost came in $35,877 under expected expenditures. Money was saved in not only transportation costs, but also custodial supplies and services and tuition for Haviland students. Pfund left money in the 2013-2014 budget for end of your maintenance costs, but said that those projects may get pushed into the 2014-2015 general fund budget. “June, normally, you’ve got about three weeks that students aren’t in school so then I have to anticipate what types of things facility wise can get done in that window,” said Pfund. Board member Greg Johnson was absent from the meeting.