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The news is good for Cape Henlopen School District property owners, said Business Manager Edward Seibert as he revealed his recommendation of no property tax increase for fiscal year 2007-08.
Based on figures received from the Sussex County Treasury Division between May 14 and May 18, Seibert said he predicts local tax revenues will generate between $14.9 and $15 million, depending on collections. Even without a tax increase, Seibert expects the district to receive an increase over last year’s local tax monies of nearly $1 million.
Seibert attributes his recommendation in part to the reduction of educators paid out of local tax dollars, adding next year the district expects to have no locally funded teachers and only six or seven paraprofessionals paid out of local taxes.
Planning to present his tax rate calculation to the school board at its May 24 meeting, Seibert said his only lament is the bulk of the tax dollars will not arrive until the end of October.
That, and other factors, will almost certainly force the district to borrow money from the state Department of Education to cover payroll expenses during August and September, said Seibert.
“Taking an advance against money a district knows is arriving soon is an unfortunate but acceptable and sometimes necessary practice. Almost every school district that is heavily dependent upon local tax dollars has to do it sometimes,” Seibert said.
Budget final for 2007
Seibert was also to present the final fiscal year 2007 budget to the school board during the May 24 meeting. Fiscal year 2007 runs from July 1, 2006 through June 30, 2007.
Based on 10 months of real data, Seibert said the final budget figures are closer to preliminary budget figures than ever before, showing an overall difference of less than 1 percent.
The preliminary budget approved by the school board Sept. 28, 2007, and the final budget show total revenues and expenses of approximately $17.7 million. As projected, the district’s expenditures exceeded its revenues and it had to spend $1.3 million it held in reserve to balance the budget. It now has approximately $2 million in reserve.
The district retained more revenue for school choice than projected in the preliminary budget, and those funds were used to provide a $28,000 supplement for curriculum expenses, primarily consisting of schoolbooks. The athletic budget was also supplemented by $25,000, to return to the department money it had forgone earlier in the year to help resolve budgetary issues.
Expenses increased more than Seibert projected for travel costs, postage, costs associated with having trailers for full-day kindergarten and comprehensive audit costs.
“We still don’t know the cost of the comprehensive general financial audit,” Seibert said, adding as of May 23 the district still had not received the draft audit report.
Perceptions misleading
Seibert said he is concerned about the public’s impression the school board has been in the dark about budgetary activities. To the contrary, he said, he has provided an itemized statement of account to the school board monthly.
Though he did not meet his self-imposed deadline of December or January for presentation of the final budget, he said that completing it late in the fiscal year is normal.
Seibert said he is working on the preliminary budget for fiscal year 2008 now and said he believes it will be a true balanced budget.
The school board is expected to vote on the final budget for this fiscal year and on the tax rate recommendation for fiscal year 2008 at its next meeting, Thursday, June 14, at Beacon Middle School.
Contact Georgia Leonhart at g.l.leonhart@comcast.net
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