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DC Everest budget hearing: state aid increases partially offset levy as enrollment declines
Summary
At an October 2024 budget hearing, DC Everest finance presenter Kelly Schrank said state revenue-limit increases and higher aid will yield roughly $1.9 million in net new revenue even as the district faces declining enrollment and plans to use fund balance for approved capital projects.
At the DC Everest Area School District budget hearing, finance presenter Kelly Schrank outlined how changes in the state budget and local enrollment are likely to shape the district’s 2024–25 finances.
Schrank said the state’s biannual budget raised revenue limits by $325 per pupil and increased the low-revenue ceiling to about $11,000; mental-health aid of $31 per student was added and special-education aid rose to about 32.4% of eligible costs. “A balanced budget is when both revenue when revenues equal expenditures,” Schrank said as she summarized the district’s operational picture.
The presenter explained how the revenue-limit calculation depends on a district’s three-year rolling membership average and property values. Schrank said DC Everest is in a declining-enrollment situation: the district’s three-year rolling average is 5,751 and recent September FTE counts showed a drop that will reduce future revenue limits. She advised the district to plan for that decline and analyze enrollment projections.
Schrank walked through the revenue-limit spreadsheet and reported a total revenue-limit figure just over $69.7 million for the coming year. Media coverage cited a $2.8 million increase in aid; Schrank clarified that because the levy declined, the district’s net new revenue tied to the revenue-limit change was closer to $1.9 million.
On the expenditure side, Schrank said roughly 65% of the budget is salary and fringe benefits, with purchased services (notably transportation) the next largest category. She said all-funds spending for the district exceeds $100 million and the presentation referenced an approximate total in the low $100 millions (presentation language: “over a hundred and $13,000,000”). Schrank noted the general-fund ending balance was around $20.4 million and highlighted a previously approved potential use of up to $3 million of fund balance for capital projects. She also said Fund 46 (capital improvement) held just over $3.5 million at the end of the last fiscal year.
Schrank described Fund 80 programs funded by a $450,000 levy that remains unchanged for 2024–25: the 3K program (partly supported until recently by a grant), school resource officers (funded from both Fund 10 and Fund 80), and GTCC (noted as built on donations). She gave a Fund 80 allocation to GTCC of $327,218 and said Fund 80 covers just over $100,700 of SRO costs this year, with additional SRO funding out of Fund 10.
Schrank also described debt-management plans, saying the district expects to defease some debt and aims to stabilize mill rates. She flagged that capital invoices remain for Fund 42 (about $1.4 million estimated) and that some multi-year capital work may span 2024–25 and 2025–26.
The presentation concluded with an invitation for questions; no motions were acted upon during the hearing portion.
What happens next: the budget hearing adjourned and the district proceeded to its annual meeting, where formal motions and voice votes followed.
