Board of Education Holds Budget Workshop

The USD 480 Board of Education met Monday for its annual budget workshop. The proposed budget from administration for the 2010-11 school term includes an increase of 4.22 mills. The reason for such a large increase is because last year’s budget had a capital outlay of zero mills due to the failure of the capital outlay special election. This year’s budget has a proposed capital outlay of 4 mills, which is the max that the board will be able to use over the next five years.

Comparing this year’s budget with the budget of 2008 it is an increase of just over 2.5 mills. The board debated the budget for around thirty minutes before taking a consensus rather or not to amend the budget or keep it as is. The unofficial vote was 4-3 in favor of the proposed budget with board members Dan Diepenbrock, Nick Hatcher, Stacy Johnson, and Jim Jury in favor, while Cheryl Louderback, Reid Petty, and Tammy Sutherland-Abbott were against it due to the large increase in taxes. The members who opposed it requested the board lower the capital outlay to 3 mills.

The budget is not adopted yet though, as it will now be published in the newspaper and will be voted on officially during the next meeting on August 9.