The USD 428 Board of Education approved the 2018-2019 budget at Monday’s meeting at the District Education Center. The budget line that stood out the most was the mill levy for USD 428 going down 4.8 mills from the previous year.
Superintendent Khris Thexton says 10 days have passed since the budget was published in the newspaper on August 3rd.
Khris Thexton Audio
The reason why the tax rate went from 46.031 last year to 41.226 for the upcoming year is because of how the state calculated school funding from enrollment. Two years ago, the state legislature changed the funding formula for schools, basing state aid on the current year rather than the past year. As a result, USD 428 did not receive as much state aid because their enrollment dropped. The Great Bend school district will receive more state aid this year.
The district’s 20-year old bond also gets paid off in September.
Khris Thexton Audio
SJCF Architecture was hired last year to develop a master plan of potential improvements to the district.
While the tax rate for Supplemental General or Local Operating Budget went down significantly, the district did raise their Capital Outlay rate from 6.525 to 8.000.