No tax increase, program cuts included in Plum School District's 2020-21 budget

Plum property owners will not have to pay more in real estate taxes, and all student programs remain in place as part of the school district’s 2020-21 budget.

School directors unanimously approved next school year’s spending plan Tuesday night.

Projected revenues were listed at about $63.44 million and expenses at about $65.29 million. The gap will be filled by pulling about $1.8 million from a projected $6.5 million reserve fund.

“We as a board thought it was important, given the pandemic, that we not hit the community with the added expense of a tax increase,” said Amy Wetmore, school board member and fiance committee liaison.

She commended district Business Manager John Zahorchak with crafting the best plan for both students and taxpayers.

“The budget was difficult because of the unknowns in terms of what we expect to receive in revenue and trying to project what those potential losses are going to be,” Zahorchak said.

The district projects a drop in real estate and earned income tax collections compared to previous school years.

Budget documents list local revenue at $35.190 million, state revenue at $27.337 million and about $913,000 in federal revenue.

“There’s so much uncertainty that we erred toward the side of very conservative in terms of those estimates,” Zahorchak said. “Never in my years of being in this position have I felt so unclear in terms of what we’re looking at for the year that we’re trying to budget for. These are our best estimates.”

The 2020-21 budget had a projected $2.5 million deficit earlier this year. That shortfall was reduced by additional teacher retirements and confirmation of federal funding, the business manager said.

Zahorchak noted the district drew all $900,000 from its Access fund, federal monies for special education services, this school year.

He said there was a chance the district could lose that money if it didn’t use it.

Plum also saved money on transportation, utilities, substitute teachers and supplies from mid-March through the end of the school year due to the statewide covid-19 shutdown.

Zahorchak said those savings, coupled with about $400,000 acquired from bond refinancing, brought in about $1 million to the good for the district.

“We had a great year,” he said about the finances.

Next school year’s budget does provide funding to purchase Chromebooks for kindergarten through third grade, which means every student K-12 will have access to those devices.

More information about how many new devices would be available and when families could receive them is expected to be released in the coming weeks.