On Tuesday, October 27, the Board of Education approved the 2015-16 balanced budget in the amount of $132,362,983.
The SASD is committed to being fiscally responsible to local taxpayers while maintaining quality educational programs for students. Total expenditures for the District have increased at an average rate of 0.53% over the last four years.
The Board of Education also certified the tax levy in the amount of $39,053,604, which is a 3.66% decrease from last year. The mill rate will decrease $0.30 from $12.18 to $11.88 per $1,000 of home valuation.
Property taxes play a major role in the state's determination of how much aid a district will receive. Due to a decrease in the city's property values, general state aid for the Sheboygan Area School District increased $3.5 million. It's important to clarify that increases in state aid do not give additional revenue to the district - it decreases the amount of the local tax levy.
Student enrollment is also an important factor in determining revenue. The Sheboygan Area School District third Friday count shows our student enrollment FTE is up 1.5% to 10,195, which positively impacts our 3-year resident membership for revenue cap calculation.
The full budget presentation is available
on our website
.
A front page article in the October 17th Sheboygan Press reported that the Sheboygan Area School District will be receiving more than $3 million in additional state aid funds this school year compared to last school year. Several community members have asked what the District plans to do with all of this "extra" money.
It is important to clarify that increases in state aid do not result in additional revenue for the school district. State aid funds are used to reduce the local taxes that are levied by the District. Although the district will receive no additional revenue due to the increase in state aid, the additional aid will allow the District to decrease the local tax levy for this school year.