INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The Indian River County School Board is considering adding three assistant principals to next year’s budget, bringing back the positions once held at the county’s three magnet schools – Liberty, Osceola and Rosewood. The option was discussed at Tuesday’s budget workshop.
“Our magnet schools have done a yeoman’s job doing the work,” Schools Superintendent Dr. Fran Adams said of administering teacher evaluations and handling mandated testing without the support of assistant principals.
Dr. Adams told the School Board that she felt it would be appropriate to return assistant principals to the three magnet schools, using “surplus” funds from the budget.
The School District is looking at a budget surplus of about $624,000 for the 2012-13 school year, given additional funding from the State Legislature.
“They seem to hold true to their commitment” to increasing public education funding, said Carter Morrison, Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations. “We appreciate that very much.”
The State Legislature has increased its per student funding by nearly $104, bringing the total per student funding to $3,583. The 2012-13 level is still less than that of the legislature’s peak funding of 2008, when school districts were allocated $4,163 per student.
The Indian River County School District expects to receive an extra $3.56 million from the state this next fiscal year, helping to offset the local decline of property values that contribute to the district’s bottom line.
Morrison has projected the district will receive nearly $1.5 million less in taxes from property.
As for the $624,000 left over in the budget, the School Board is considering using those funds to hire the three assistant principals at the magnet schools, a computer programmer and a custodial coordinator. Both the programmer and coordinator’s positions would be partially funded through the elimination of vacant internal positions in each department.
In all, the five hires could cost approximately $274,400 – leaving $349,600 left over, which the board plans to reserve for mid-year budget cuts and deeper than projected declines in property values.
At the same time the School District is looking at a balanced budget, the School Board is considering going to voters to request they approve continuing to fund education in the school district.
Property owners currently pay 0.60 mills extra in property taxes to the School District. That total 0.60 mills is set to expire by fiscal year 2013-14 and consists of the 0.25 mills voters approved last year to fund critical classroom needs as well as the 0.35 mills debt service approved in 1990 that helped fund, in part, the construction of Sebastian River High School.
The millage referendum, which could be on the August Primary ballot, would be a continuation of what taxpayers had already approved – only it would shift funds to other needs.
“We’re asking for something that’s millage neutral,” Morrison said.
The referendum, if approved, would continue the 0.60 mill contribution annually for four years and could generate approximately $32.7 million total for the School District. In the first year, 2013-14, the contribution would be an estimated $7.8 million.
The funds would be used to purchase textbooks, bolster the district’s digital curriculum and provide virtual programming, which is mandated by the state.
It would also be used to fund the 31 positions currently funded under the 0.25 mills critical needs approved last year by voters. Those positions include 14 media specialists, nine reading specialists, three physical education instructors, three art instructors, and two music instructors throughout the county. In the event the 0.60 mill referendum were not approved, those positions could face elimination.
Funds generated through the 0.60 mill referendum would also be used to upgrade the district’s core technology systems, provide more technology in classrooms and provide the infrastructure needed to keep it running.
Funds, too, would be set aside for the district’s charter schools, which would be required to use the funds in the same way the district is proposing to the public. How much money each charter would receive and how it would be divvied up has yet to be decided, according to Morrison.
| 2013/14 |
2014/15 |
2015/16 |
2016/17 |
Total |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Potential Proceeds | 7.8M | 8M | 8.3M | 8.6M | 32.7M |
| 21st Century Curricula | 1.7M | 2M | 2.2M | 2.4M | 8.3M |
| Charter Schools | 358,000 | 367,000 | 379,000 | 394,000 | 1.5M |
| 31 positions | 1.7M | 1.8M | 1.9M | 2M | 7.4M |
| Classroom Technology | 1.6M | 1.8M | 1.8M | 1.8M | 7M |
| Technology Infrastructure |
1.7M | 1.3M | 1.3M | 1.3M | 5.5M |
| Information Services | 750,000 | 750,000 | 750,000 | 750,000 | 3M |
