District staff brief board on revenue-limit worksheet, declining-enrollment exemption and upcoming levy decisions

District administration updated the Jefferson School District board on budget projections and the third-Friday count that determines revenue-limit authority.

The presentation highlighted a three-year rolling average enrollment decline (previous-year average 1,646 to about 1,601) and a one-time declining-enrollment exemption of roughly $570,000 for the current year. The administrator said state and local revenue-limit calculations produce an estimated base revenue-limit authority of about $22.17 million and a projected total levy of about $14.79 million, yielding a mill rate near 8.90 under current assumptions; the projection includes roughly $1.3 million in defeasance intended to stabilize the mill rate.

Officials said the Department of Public Instruction is due to release final revenue-limit worksheets on the next business day and that the board will be presented with updated documents before the Oct. 28 meeting, where it will adopt a budget and levy scenarios depending on the Nov. 5 referendum outcome. The administration explained the declining-enrollment exemption exists to provide a one-year buffer for districts that lose students under a three-year averaging method and that the exemption is removed from future revenue-limit authority after the year it is applied.

Board members asked clarification questions about how the exemption is awarded and whether similar relief would recur in future years; staff said the exemption is recalculated annually and can appear in subsequent years if enrollment declines are repeated. The administration said it will provide two revenue-limit worksheets to the board — one that assumes passage of the referendum and one that does not — so the board can adopt a budget and levy under either scenario.