The Perry School District recently approved the fiscal year 2019 budget, and it contains both good and bad news.

The good news is that the District’s tax levy rate, which is the highest in the state, will decrease next year after two straight years of increasing by over one dollar. The tax levy for the 2019 fiscal year will be $21.53, down from $21.58. Superintendent Clark Wicks says while a $0.05 decrease may not seem that substantial, it should still come as a relief to taxpayers in the school district. “It is important that we make small steps for the budget. We’re making an effort to be good stewards of public funds. We appreciate everybody that has been through public schools, still supports the public schools, and we feel that it’s our duty to make sure that we are good stewards of that. So we are reducing the tax rate by a nickel, and (we) want to continue to work on that and become efficient with our budget.”

The bad news for the budget is the enrollment, which is one of the key contributors to state funding. Wicks says Perry’s total weighted enrollment for this year dropped by 97.3 students, which means they’ll lose up to around $400,000 in state funding. However, Wicks says they do have a budget guarantee for next year that will make up for that loss. That is only good for one year, though, so he says the district will have to make more gains in the coming years.

To learn more about the Perry School District budget, listen to Tuesday’s Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program at RaccoonValleyRadio.com.