The Perry Community School District Board of Education reviewed the preliminary fiscal year 2016 budget at their meeting this week, though the amount of Supplemental State Aid districts will receive is still unknown.
Superintendent Lynn Ubben says unfortunately, this is not new for school boards to have to deal with.
“This should have been set last year so schools knew if they had zero percent, one percent, two percent, three present or four percent. I doubt that we’re going to see six percent, but I’ve been in education long enough that we used to see six percent. It is what it is.”
The State House has proposed a 1.25 percent Supplemental Aid, while the Senate is pushing for four percent. If no agreement is made, districts will get zero percent. Which is what the Perry School District plans to certify their budget at, unless something changes in the next couple weeks. Ubben says if it is at zero percent, that puts the tax levy at around $18 per thousand dollars of valuation, but also puts Perry on a budget guarantee.
“The budget guarantee means you can tax as a district. (The legislature says) ‘The State of Iowa is not going to raise taxes, so we’re only going to give you this amount.’ Really what they might be saying is ‘we’re not going to tax you but your local districts are going to have to tax you more because we’re not giving them what they need.’”
A public hearing in regards to the school district’s budget has been set for the next Board meeting on Monday, April 13th.