After years of gut-wrenching personnel cuts, Pasco County Schools expects to add employees this year, while reducing tax bills for property owners and balancing a budget of nearly $1.2 billion.
The proposed budget is based on a tax rate of $7.15 per $1,000 of taxable value compared to a tax rate of $7.36 this year.
Based on this year’s proposed budget, the owner of a $100,000 home, after $50,000 in exemptions, would pay $357.50 in school taxes, a reduction of $10.50 from the current rate.
The proposed budget anticipates the district’s enrollment to be 67,955, an increase of 925 over last year.
Allocations in the budget include:
• $500,000 to cover costs associated with opening Sanders Memorial, Quail Hollow and Shady Hills elementary schools, which are slated to reopen in the 2015-16 school year.
• $7.9 million for the equivalent of 176 full-time positions, primarily to comply with state class size requirements.
• $2.8 million for professional and curriculum mandates.
• $1.5 million for increased health insurance costs.
The budget assumes a $1 million reduction in district energy costs and $1.6 million in savings from cutting the district’s early retirement program.
The proposed budget also reflects an expected increase of 607 students attending charter schools, receiving McKay scholarships for special needs or enrolled in Department of Juvenile Justice centers. Those 607 students represent $2.4 million in funding, which comes into Pasco, but goes to those programs.
The total projected enrollment for those programs is 3,762, representing more than $23.3 million.
The district expects to have a total of $3.4 million available for salary increases, based on these budget projections.
School board member Joanne Hurley said this year’s budget deliberations are a welcome departure from the previous seven years. In those years, the board was forced to make “painful, painful decisions,” Hurley said.
“It is so nice at this time of the year to say we have a balanced budget,” she said. “This is a real luxury after the past seven years.”
A final public hearing on the district’s budget will be held in September.
Published July 30, 2014
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