Fort Mill school board considers new $106.9 million budget

The Fort Mill School Board is considering an operating budget for fiscal year 2016-17 that increases spending by $9.3 million compared to the previous budget.

Most of the increase is tied to the area’s surge of residential building and the extra demand on the school system new families represent, officials said at a recent school board meeting. Much of the new spending will be on staffing a new middle school.

The proposed balanced budget, totaling $106.9 million, includes new items such as a 2 percent cost of living salary increase for all employees – a $1.6 million line item – said Leanne Lordo, assistant superintendent of finance and operations. This is on top of the regular salary step increase.

“We’re very happy for our teachers and our employees because that hasn’t happened in seven years,” she said.

Several items in the budget are related to the area’s growth, including 40.5 new teachers, a $2.9 million cost, Lordo said. The budget also includes eight new special education teachers at $576,000 and $400,000 for an additional 12.5 special education classroom assistants.

“We’re seeing a growing need in that area for assistance, one on one, with very specific cases based on this growth,” she said.

With the opening of Pleasant Knoll Middle School on the horizon, the district is budgeting $85,250 for a half-year principal and bookkeeper to help with the planning and opening of the new school, a trend in line with previous years, Lordo said.

The proposed budget also funds an additional maintenance grounds staff person at $50,700 and a $1 an hour increase for bus drivers, bringing the starting pay to $11.73 an hour, Lordo said. The total cost is $136,608.

A curriculum data specialist is included at $90,000 to meet the data analyzing needs due to growth, she said.

Total school requests totaled $13.5 million, from which high priority items were chosen, Lordo said.

The district is projecting a 4 percent growth on top of the six-mil increase on property taxes, bringing in an additional $4.3 million in tax revenue, Lordo said. Total local revenue is projected at $56.7 million, or an 8.2 percent increase.

Due to Act 388, which eliminates property tax funding for schools from primary residences, the district is losing more than $11 million in property tax revenue this year alone, Lordo said. Commercial property, secondary or rental homes and vehicle taxes do help fund public schools.

Lordo said the district has had favorable property tax collections this year and are happy with the balanced budget.

“It’s pretty unbelievable for me personally to think we’re now going to be over $100 million in the general fund budget,” she said.

Lordo said such a large budget makes sense with the growth.

The district also expects to see an increase of $3.7 million in state revenue, Lordo said. The budget also includes $1 million from the contingency fund, a decrease of $837,731.

“I’m very pleased we’re able to bring to you a balanced budget where we’re only planning to draw $1 million for next year,” Lordo said.

“That we’re able to recommend this many new items within our schools and our departments, but we’re able to also lower our dependency on this number for next year.”

The plan is to hold a public hearing on the budget on May 17 and it will be on the agenda for final approval at the June meeting, Lordo said.

Other items

The board approved the District Strategic Plan for 2015-2020, including the Read-to-Succeed and Gifted-Talented plans. The plan includes the district’s new vision statement, “Children First…Every Day.”

The board also approved $1.5 million for replacing the HVAC equipment at Gold Hill Middle School.

The district is also going to borrow $5.6 million via an 8 percent bond resolution, up to what is allowed, to cover items such as replacing carpet, roof and sidewalk repairs, the resurfacing and drainage installation at Springfield Middle School and Gold Hill Elementary School’s track fields and other operation costs, the board decided. All requests totaled $3.5 million and an additional $2 million for the Fort Mill High School phase two expansion and the Riverview Athletic complex project budgets, Lordo said.

The board approved a $5.5 million bond resolution for principal and interest on the installment purchase plan repayment.

This story was originally published April 25, 2016 at 1:06 PM with the headline "Fort Mill school board considers new $106.9 million budget."