|
|
LOYAL REFERENDUM NEARS
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 -- 11:56 am
Posted by Riley Hebert-News Director
Voters in the Loyal School District are just a few days away from making a big decision.
They’ll be faced with a 3-year, $500,000 per year, revenue cap exemption referendum.
"We were about the only school in the area that hasn't had a referendum yet, our turn has come," says School Board President Dave Fricke.
The district projects deficits of $250,000 next year, $500,000 the next and $750,000 in the third year; a total of $1.5-million.
Declining enrollments and increased costs have pushed the district into deficit spending. "A good portion of your funding is based on student numbers. We have lost about 78 students over the course of the last four or five years," Fricke says.
"We do expect to lose between 25 to 30 over the next two years. At roughly $9,000 per student, it doesn't take long to figure out what we've lost for revenue," he notes.
If approved, the mill rate would jump $1.33 per thousand in 2010, and .57-cents per thousand in 2011 and 2012. Fricke says the impact is lessened as the district is retiring a debt this year.
If the referendum is not approved, the board will have to make cuts. "This is merely a stop-gap to maintain what we have...to continue what we currently have for class offerings," Fricke explains.
|
|
|
VIEW OUR ARCHIVE
|
|
