School Board budget on par

The Acadia Parish School Board is set to adopt a tight budget for fiscal year 2016-17 budget Monday.
The proposed budget for FY16-17 shows revenues of $78,394,060 and expenses of $78,091,143. That leaves only about $300,000 of wiggle room heading into the year.
“With tight revenue, we’re looking at each category,” said Dr. Doug Chance, administrator of ancillary services.
Highlights of the expected revenue in the budget proposal include roughly $53 million in Minimum Foundation Program and over $19 million in local sources (renewal taxes, 16th section earnings, etc.).
Meanwhile, Chance explained that the parish is projecting almost $40 million in regular instruction costs this year, over $7 million in operations and maintenance and over $4 million in transportation.
At the mid-year point, regular instruction was almost $41 million, but the Legislature’s decision to cut teacher retirement by eight tenths of a percent gave the parish a bit of a break in that expenditure.
“When we put that across the board, that eight tenths of a percent on our budget is a $462,000 reduction,” he said.
That, coupled with a bit of enrollment adjustment and the loss of roughly 14 teacher positions parish-wide got the parish to reduce the cost at midyear by over a million for the next year.
Operations and maintenance includes more than just building costs as custodians, electricity and natural gas are among the included items.
“We’re going to start where we started next year (with repair and maintenance of buildings) and move forward,” said Chance.
He cautioned that the parish would have to prioritize many things in this category and beyond. He reminded them and schools alike to decide if something truly is a “need” and not just a “want.”
Within the budget was a recommendation of one more expenditure to the budget of years’ past: adding an accountant. The Personnel Insurance and Curriculum Committee would approve the advertisement of an accountant following the Budget and Finance Committee. Chance explained he had been after the accountant idea for at least three months.
The proposed budget is available for public inspection through Monday, June 6. A public hearing has been called for Monday and will be in the board’s opening items in its full June meeting.