Mike Wolanin | The Republic An exterior view of the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation administration building in Columbus, Ind., Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022.
The Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp.’s proposed budget for 2024 is nearly $153 million.
The school board held a public hearing on the budget Monday and is expected to vote on its adoption at the Oct. 23 meeting, said Assistant Superintendent of Financial Services Chad Phillips.
BCSC’s proposed budget for 2024 totals $152,822,229, which is a 5.1% increase over 2023. The proposed advertised tax rate is $1.0203 for every $100 of assessed value.
“We always advertise at least a couple of cents higher than where we end up,” Phillips said. He added that their goal is to keep the rate around $1.00 to $1.01.
The adopted rate for 2023 is $0.9997.
BCSC is expecting to spend 6% more on salaries and benefits next year, Phillips said. They’re also budgeting a one-time, 8% inflation adjustment to school, classroom and department supply budgets.
His presentation also included a revised version of the referendum operating fund budget. The previous version, presented earlier this month, had $5.3 million budgeted for teacher salary and benefit increases; the update has $6.16 million. He said that the increase reflects what he estimates the school corporation will actually spend in this category.
“$5.3 million is the dollar amount that we budgeted for each of the eight years of the referendum, knowing that years we might be a little under that and some years a little over,” Phillips said. “And the first year, we were under that, carried the unused dollars forward to the next year to apply to the following year. This year, we’re going to exceed it by a pretty significant amount.”
Consequently, Phillips said the board will need to approve an additional appropriation at an upcoming meeting to bridge the gap for 2023.
As discussed at the board’s Sept. 11 meeting, Phillips is proposing that BCSC transfer $250,000 from the referendum fund to the education fund to cover the curricular materials costs. This is due to recent legislative changes that prohibit public schools from charging students curricular fees.
While the state is reimbursing schools for the cost of materials, Phillips estimates that the allocation will leave a $250,000 gap for BCSC.
He added that the board does not have to decide the source of those funds right away.
“All we’re doing is appropriating the $250,000 in the education fund at the October meeting,” he added. “… It sounds like there’s general consensus that expending the dollars on the expenditures is appropriate from the education fund. Then it’s just a question of where the money is transferred from or offset by a lower operations transfer.”
In the operations fund, the school corporation is budgeting $400,000 more for property, liability and cyber insurance. They are also budgeting a $171,000 increase for software, which Phillips said includes investments in cybersecurity.
The operations fund also includes $1 million to replace lighting and scoreboards at Columbus North and East high schools’ football stadiums, Phillips said. Another $500,000 is allocated for district-wide roof and HVAC projects.
His presentation also included assumptions regarding average daily membership (ADM) counts, which are still being calculated. BCSC’s enrollment was recently estimated at 11,366, which is a decrease of 65 students from the same time last year.
“When I sent this (presentation) last week, it was about 65; today, it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 45,” Phillips said. “So we continue to enroll students.”
The state of Indiana uses ADM to allot tuition funding support to schools based on a per-pupil amount. Phillips’ budget assumptions include per-pupil amounts of $6,590 in 2023-24 and $6,681 in 2024-25.
BCSC’s enrollment figures include 330 students who attend Columbus Virtual Pathway. The school corporation will only receive 85% tuition support for these individuals, Phillips said. He also mentioned that BCSC did not offer CVP in grades K-5 this year.
