Loyal School District Talks Referendum During a Special School Board Meeting, Part 1
Thursday, July 10th, 2014 -- 10:20 AM
-The Loyal School Board held a special board meeting on Tuesday evening to hear the public opinion of Loyal residents regarding a proposed referendum for the district.Loyal, being one of the only districts in the county that has asked for and failed to pass a referendum, is looking for support to fix some building maintenance issues the district is facing and helping with general operating expenses.
A revenue limit was put in place for districts back in 1993. Since then, Loyal has seen a drop in enrollment of 95 students from 2004 to 2014; at $9,200 per student that equals out to a loss of $874,000 in state aid. The district has already cut nearly $1 million out of the budget by way of cutting down full time teachers and support staff.
The district has also cut salaries by sharing staff with other districts for classes and sporting activities. The staff is also paying more for their benefits. Most of this was done between 2010 and 2011, in large part, because of Governor Walker?s Act 10.
However, even with all that, the district is still looking at a budget deficit by the next school year. Loyal has been able to pull itself out of the red with recent budgets, even starting in the positive for their budget this year, but that will quickly change.
The district is looking at a projected budget deficit of $96,746 for the 2014-2015 school year and it will steadily increase each year. By 2018-2019, if nothing is done, the Loyal School District will have a projected deficit of $639,808.
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