In the final meeting for the calendar year, the Big Lake School board broke down plans for finances, held its Truth in Taxation meeting, and set the tax levy.

Truth in Taxation

The Big Lake School Board held its Truth in Taxation meeting before its regular meeting last week. 

Funding for schools is highly regulated by the state. Formulas determine the amount of revenue based on an amount per pupil. The amount the state has allocated to the schools has not kept up with inflation since 2003. Special education is also under-funded. 

School districts make up for this shortfall through a referendum and/or a tax levy. A referendum is voter-approved, while a tax levy is determined by formulas set by the state.

Currently, Big Lake pays slightly less than average for each pupil in the district than other Minnesota public schools.

Unfortunately, an increase in the tax levy does not necessarily constitute an increase in budget. Higher taxation on the local residents may simply be compensation for the shortfall from the state, and the expenditure budget is limited by state formulas, voter-approved levies, and the fund balance. In this way, the board is different from other forms of local government, such as a city or township. 

The levy for this year will include an increase of 1.5%. The school’s tax levy was set at just under $10.7 million. There would have been a 2.5% increase in the levy, but some CARES funding was applied to the school’s unemployment insurance.

The full meeting is available to the public at Sites.Google.com/A/BigLakeSchools.org/Stream/.

Finances

An independent auditor determined no issues with the reporting of the school’s expenditures. The amount of money spent by the district was found to come slightly under budget overall.

The OPEB debt service fund was closed out, with the remaining funds being transferred to the normal debt service fund.

The loss of students enrolled in the district has been offset by new students moving into the district.

The district is still down in funding for meal benefits for students from the state. This is because meals at public schools were made free for students this fall. The school district does rely on that funding, however. The deadline to apply for meal benefits has been extended through Jan. 4, so the school will be making personal calls to families asking them to apply for the meal benefits. Even if a family thinks it will not be eligible, it cannot hurt to apply. Families can also apply again even if they were denied in the past. The decrease in families applying for these benefits has led to a $280,000 decrease in funding for the school. 

Maintenance Bonds

The school will be taking out $8.25 million in bonds for maintenance around the district. They are projected to need around $7.74 million for the work that needs to be done. Of this, $5.7 million will be used for indoor air quality projects, and two million dollars will be for other deferred maintenance projects. The facility plan which these bonds will pay for was submitted for review to the commissioner of education, and is available for public review as well. The sale of the bonds will take place Jan. 28 and will be placed with whomever makes the most favorable bid.

MS Update

The middle school is in the middle of having its HVAC system updated. The project has halted momentarily due to the cold weather, but will resume again in May for non-student areas (i.e. the boiler room.) The project will include replacing the steam boiler plant with high efficiency condensing hot water boilers, and installing new ventilation equipment in classrooms.

This is a part of a larger 10-year plan.

Joint Powers Meeting

A Joint powers meeting will be held between the school board and the local governments, including Big Lake City, Big Lake Twp., and Orrock Twp. Jan. 21 at 6 p.m.

Liaison Report

Student Liaison Ella Dotzler reported that she is working on creating an email address with which she can connect to the students in the district. She will use the email to give the students updates on board decisions and ask for their input on district issues via surveys.

COVID-19 Update

The superintendent and staff are working to implement guidance from the governor, state, and Department of Education. It will take some time to figure out how to implement all of the orders the school has been given.

One of the changes to be made is how COVID-19 numbers for the county will no longer affect whether elementary students attend in-person. Several board members expressed hope that a similar change would be made for the secondary students, and decided to start making plans with the community on how they can bring those students back in person in such a way that is safe. More information will be made available as soon as possible.