The Oregon-Davis School Board recently held a public workshop to look at how the Referendum and Operating budgets work.
In the fall, the board held an open door workshop to go over the larger scale budgets that they see in their monthly packets and compare the competitiveness of wages and benefits to surrounding area schools. During this meeting, Superintendent William Bennett promised to hold another workshop to present a line-by-line budget.
The Referendum budget is funded through property taxes and used to pay teacher’s salaries and benefits, I.T. services and to fund school athletics. The Oregon-Davis School Corporation has been fortunate in recent years, due to the residents of Oregon and Davis Townships voting on a referendum, to pay more in property taxes in order to help the school with more money. That referendum will be up for another vote in the next few years leaving a chance for the school to see a budget decrease of around $800,000.
The board sets the budget based on how much funds were appropriated compared to how much was actually spent in the previous year. If the expenditures are lower than the amount appropriated, then the school board would ask for a lower dollar amount for the next year. Knowing that they will not get the actual amount requested the board asks for as much as possible to try and create some wiggle room in the budget in case of emergencies, while still trying to remain conscious of tax dollars being spent.
The 2022 appropriations for the Referendum fund was $1,011,179.00. As of the time of the meeting, the expenditures come out to $809,664.50. The 2023 final budget appropriations will be in the area of $1,034,908.00
The Operating funds are also made available through property taxes. These funds are used for building and bus maintenance and utility services. The 2022 appropriations were $2,347,774.30. To date expenditures come out to $1,890,366.68. The final budget appropriations for 2023 will be around $2,237,072.
Any money left over for either budget at the end of the year will roll over.
The Oregon Davis School Corporation still has around $1,000,000 left in COVID relief funds, but it is not a guaranteed yearly fund to base off of any budget.
The board also recently voted to perform their duties without any compensation, which will help save the school that much more money.
