School Board Approves Tentative Budget, Millage
The Gulf County School Board tentatively approved on Monday what chairperson Linda Wood described as a "reasonable, workable budget within the constraints of the economy."
During Monday's meeting, the school board approved for advertisement a district millage rate of 4.876, down from 4.884 for 2007-08.
A mill represents $1 for every $1,000 in county taxable property value, which this year totals slightly over $2.6 billion, a roughly $72 million decline from last year.
The $12,186,854 school board budget is broken into four main funding components, three of which are determined by state lawmakers.
The estimated required local effort for this year will be 3.697 mills, down nearly two-tenths of a mill from last year's 3.893.
Discretionary funding, which in the past was set at 0.510 mills for all districts, was reduced to 0.498 as a result of Amendment 1, a property tax relief measure passed by voters in January.
Supplementary discretionary funding is determined at $100 per student, meaning for local taxpayers .081 mills, the same as last year.
In crafting its tentative budget, the School Board had discretion only over the fourth budgetary component, Local Capital Improvement Dollars.
The board levied a millage of .600, up from .400 last year, but well below the maximum 2.0 mills each district can levy for capital improvements.
The millage rate represents an increase of $472,458 for a variety of capital improvements, including lunchroom furniture, copy machines, computers and software.
The board will hold a final public hearing on Monday, August 4 at 5:15 p.m. (ET) to finalize the 2008-2009 budget and millage rate.
The meeting will be held at the Gulf County School Board Meeting Room, located at 150 Middle School Road in Port St. Joe.
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Tentatively Approved Local Capital Improvements
Major Items
Security cameras -$125,000
Track - $85,000
Property insurance - $131,300
Buses - $195,000
Fence - $43,428
Wewahitchka lunchrooms - $14,875
Technology for schools - $288,500
School equipment (100) - $205,000
Copiers (5) - $97,000
York - $40,000
Flooring county-wide - $50,000
Bathrooms county-wide - $50,000
Maintenance vehicles - $32,000
Other school requests
Wewahitchka Elementary School
Re-carpet 10 classrooms - $13,440
Port St. Joe High School
Lunchroom chairs (500) - $17,500
Wewahitchka High School
Lunchroom chairs/tables - $14,000
Gym bleachers - $70,000
Upgrade phone system - $9,515
Wewahitchka Middle School
A+ Credit Recovery - $12,000
Lunchroom tables - $7,200
County-wide
Pinnacle - $65,000
Achieve 3000 - $20,000
Dashboard, Follett, All Call - $21,500
IEP Software - $10,000
5 Laptops for special needs students - $6,000
75 computers - $75,000
20 document cameras - $16,000
5 Smart Boards - $8,000
20 Projectors/20 Printers - $32,000
Peripherals - $5,000
Virtualization remote desktop software - $30,000
Total: $1,500,758
