Highlands administrators refine budget that does not increase property taxes

Highlands School District’s budget for the upcoming school year remains a work in progress a week ahead of its scheduled approval, but no property tax increase is expected.

Business Manager Lori Byron told the school board Monday that administrators have continued to refine the budget, resulting in a roughly $283,000 reduction in proposed spending for the 2020-21 school year. That has lowered the budget from about $49 million to $48.7 million, a change of about 0.6%.

Byron said administrators went back to the budget, looking for areas where spending could be eliminated, reduced or delayed. That netted $150,000 in savings, she said.

Superintendent Monique Mawhinney said “hard decisions” had to be made.

“We have to be mindful of our spending without taking academic programming away from our kids,” she said. “I don’t in any way think any kids are going to suffer from the additional cuts. That’s the important part.”

Savings also will come from retirements.

Two employees’ retirements were approved last month and are reflected in the proposed final budget, Byron said. They will be replaced by adjusting existing staff.

There have since been two more retirements. The savings from those salaries and benefits will be worked into the budget before it is adopted June 22, Byron said.

With the spending cuts and retirements, Byron said the budget deficit has been reduced from about $4.9 million to just under $4.5 million. It will be covered by the district’s reserves.

The district’s property tax rate is proposed to remain at 24.88 mills. The annual school tax bill on a home assessed at $100,000 would remain $2,488.

Approved homesteads in the district will get a tax reduction of roughly $247. That is based on the district getting about $1.3 million in gambling tax funds, and there being 5,248 approved homesteads in the district. The district has no farmsteads.