Plum School District's next budget timeline released

Plum School District officials released their timeline for next school year’s budget.

District Business Manager John Zahorchak said the move was to provide some communication about the upcoming financial planning, and it is too early to determine what, if any, tax increase may be necessary to balance the budget.

“I haven’t looked at one thing on revenue yet,” he said. “I have a ballpark, but nothing to base anything solid. I’m still closing out the (current) school year.”

The first draft of revenue projections and rough draft of building and department expenditures will be in November, according to the timeline.

A facility and technology meeting to review the capital budget, as well as initial presentation of the budget to the finance committee will take place in December.

The board plans to either adopt a preliminary budget, or a resolution to stay within the Act 1 index — a state formula regulating real estate tax increases — in January.

A proposed budget will be released in May with final budget adoption planned for June.

The budget timeline was posted to the district’s website, www.pbsd.net, under the school board’s “related documents” tab.

There were no program cuts, furloughs or tax hikes in the current $64.7 million budget.

It was the first Plum School District budget balanced without borrowed money or any aforementioned moves in years.