Waterford Graded annual meeting Monday

By Dave Fidlin

Correspondent

Residents attending the Waterford Graded School District’s annual meeting this coming Monday will be greeted to a proposed 2015-16 school year budget that includes a property tax levy proposal reminiscent of the one adopted a year ago.

As a precursor to next week’s meeting, which will include district highlights and an overview of the budget, the WGSD School Board on Sept. 21 adopted a projected 2015-16 budget of $16.94 million.

The district’s largest revenue source, property taxes, could clock in at $10.5 million – the same amount incorporated into WGSD’s 2014-15 school year budget.

Superintendent Ed Brzinski hashed over some of the finer points of this year’s budget earlier this month at a School Board Personnel and Finance Committee meeting.

One of the challenges in crafting this year’s budget, Brzinski said, was building it around the knowledge another important income source – state aid – would decrease.

While the numbers remain in flux, district officials are anticipated taking in $5.79 million from the state to fund some of WGSD’s operations costs. By contrast, that line item a year ago totaled $6.33 million.

“We are going to be taking a big hit there,” Brzinski said.

To account for the disparity, Brzinski said WGSD has made trims elsewhere in the budget, including an overall effort to reduce expenses by $200,000. Some of those reductions have come by cutting the general administration budget and changing the district’s insurance carrier.

The oft-discussed introduction of 4-year-old kindergarten this fall within WGSD impacts the budget by $350,000, though those dollars are being carried over from a so-called assigned fund in the 2014-15 school year. At the same time, WGSD anticipates receiving startup grant funds of $1,100 per student enrolled in the 4K program this year.

Challenges aside, Brzinski said he is optimistic about the prognosis of this year’s budget. Compared to initial projections, he said a higher number of students are enrolled in WGSD’s classrooms this school year.

“We’ve been pleasantly surprised with what we’ve been able to do,” Brzinski said.

The district does not anticipate adding to reserve dollars in the fund balance when the books on the 2015-16 school year are closed, but Brzinski said he does not anticipate the existing amount being adversely impacted.

As the district’s new top leader, Brzinski said he would like to adopt new budget-building strategies, moving forward.

“My goal this year is to have a thorough budget planning process, beginning in November and December,” he said. “It’s going to take some effort … but in the long run, it will help the district with year to year planning.”

In other business, Sept. 21, the WGSD board:

• Authorized purchasing a new water heater at Woodfield Elementary School with the caveat the expense not exceed $10,750. Kenosha-based AccuTemp Mechanical will handle the expense.
• Held first readings of eight board policies. Several of the policies are wordsmithing and include references to the district’s official legal name, election related issues and the officers serving on the board.

The policies will be formally adopted in October when the board has a second reading.