The Easton Board of Education unanimously approved its 2010-2011 budget during a meeting Monday night, a district official said.
Charles Coblentz, superintendent of Easton schools, said the total mill levy approved unanimously by the board was 57.141, up from the previous year’s 56.577.
The total taxes levied will be $1,721,904 compared to $1,659,603 in 2009-2010.
Coblentz said the majority of that increase is due to a board decision to levy 3 mills this year for the capital outlay fund. Last year, when the board voted on its budget, it decided to eliminate capital outlay spending on building improvement and equipment purchases to avoid a full 9-mill increase over the year before.
This year, Coblentz said there was some room in the budget to move those 3 mills back in without a large increase. There was also a need — the first payment of a five-year lease-purchase agreement for buses after the board’s decision in May to begin to handle busing in-house instead of contracting with Easton Bus Service.
“Overall, the intentions of having our own buses is to save money,” Coblentz said.
The board will also meet soon to consider what other, if any, capital projects or purchases the district might need in the near future.
Spending for the district’s general fund is held steady by state mandates at 20 mills, but Coblentz said the local option budget that the district has control over was reduced for the 2010-2011 school year from 25.085 to 23.411 mills. He said most of the reason for the decrease in that levy was due to an increase of almost $1 million in the city of Easton’s assessed valuation, which means more tax dollars are generated per mill.
Expenditures, like that for bond and interest, were also proposed to be less in 2010-2011 than the previous year.
Still, Coblentz said the board combed the budget and weighed the options before deciding on the final numbers.
“The board was very concerned not to raise the mill levy from the year before,” he said.
Looking forward, Coblentz said the budget might be put to bed on the district’s side, but there could still be changes. Over the last two years, the district has received numerous cuts from Topeka in the middle of the year to its budgets and state aid per pupil in the face of diminishing revenue collections, while other state aid payments have arrived late.
“I think the biggest worry we all have is whether the school district budgets are going to be cut further,” he said.
