By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer
ASHWAUBENON – The Ashwaubenon School District’s tax levy for the 2018-19 school year is going down by more than $1.3 million from the previous year.
A levy of $16,466,315 was approved Wednesday, Oct. 24, by the Ashwaubenon school board.
Business Director Keith Lucius, who provided an overview of the district’s budget, noted the largest factor for the drop in the levy was the debt service levy decreasing by more than $1.2 million from the previous year.
“That’s really a good trend for our taxpayers, and it’s something I think is important for you all to know, that’s where we are budget-wise,” Lucius told the board. “My hope and my prediction is that (the tax levy) will be at this range, stabilizing at this levy total for several years now.”
Lucius said the $440,000 included in the 2018-19 budget for referenda debt will cover all future payments for referendum-approved bonds.
“The high school referendum and the elementary referendum, which were both in that 1999 to 2002 range, we’ll have both of those paid off three years early,” he said. “Those bonds are callable. I’m not going to tell you we’re going to call them at this point. I’m working with our financial advisor to decide if it makes more sense to call them and pay them all off once we get our tax money this year, or do we keep the tax money and put it in a trust and bank it for interest on it.”
Lucius said the district’s only remaining debt after this school year will be for the remediation loan, for which a $124,416 payment is included in the 2018-19 budget.
“I think it’s five or six years left on that loan, so it puts us in a very good budget position,” he said.
The bulk of the overall tax levy, the general fund, is $15,418,685. Another $476,000 is being levied for the district’s community service fund, which is able to be used for programs that are not elementary and secondary education programs but have the primary function of serving the community.
Lucius said the district’s equalized mill rate to go with the total levy is $8.37 per $1,000 of equalized property value, down 73 cents per $1,000, or 8.07 percent, from the previous year.
Budget adopted
Board members also approved the 2018-19 budget that that includes general fund revenues and expenditures of $33,302,864, an increase of 1.84 percent from the $32,702,222 budgeted for the previous year, and special education revenue and expenditures of $4,720,790, an increase of .24 percent from the $4,709,708 budgeted for 2017-18.
Following the general fund property tax levy, the district’s next two largest revenue sources in the general fund include open enrollment and state equalization aid, budgeted for 2018-19 at $8,817,845 and $6,160,577, respectively.
Based on the student headcount taken on the third Friday in September, Lucius reported the district has 3,302 total students, up 29 from the previous school year, with open enrollment students accounting for 1,167, an increase of 42.
He also noted 127 district students are attending school elsewhere under open enrollment, an increase of 21 from the previous school year.
Based on a three-year average of the full-time equivalent (FTE) number of students who live in the district, Lucius said the per-pupil amount of revenue Ashwaubenon is able to receive is $9,624.59.
He said open enrollment students, who do not have any impact on the district’s tax levy, result in Ashwaubenon receiving $7,379 for each non-special education student and $12,431 for a special education student that attends the district for the entire school year.