The Caesar Rodney School District Board of Education gives a thumbs-up to a preliminary budget for the next fiscal year.
The district’s finances are looking better for the coming year, thanks to an operating referendum which passed handily in February. That measure is expected to generate over $6 million in revenue in its first year.
One big new expense is pay raises for district staff. During the run-up to this year’s referendum vote, officials stressed that the district had the highest student population in Kent County, but its teachers were among the lowest-paid. That changed about a month ago, when the district inked a deal with the Caesar Rodney Education Association that included aggressive teacher raises over the next few years, making the district’s teachers the highest-paid in the county.
The preliminary budget includes $1.6 million in additional costs for staffing, including health insurance.
Another significant increase in the preliminary budget is driven by skyrocketing and volatile energy costs from everything from electricity to heating oil to fuel for the district’s school buses.
“We will be increasing our operations and utilities for next year by $701,000 to address rising utility and energy costs,” Meaghan Brennan, CRSD’s finance director, told school board members last week.
The district also wants to make a significant investment in school safety, one of its major taking points in making the case to voters for the operating referendum earlier this year.
“We are also establishing as part of the referendum a safety and security referendum appropriation for updated communication, [door] handle sets, and interior security cameras,” Brennan told board members.
The total cost for the security improvements is some $1.4 million.
School board members approved the preliminary budget unanimously without discussion.
In a separate vote, the board also approved taking $450,000 of the district’s reserve funds and placing the money in a separate account to cover large, unplanned expenses.
“There will be three components in this first year: $75,000 for technology improvements, $300,000 for facility management, and $75,000 for curriculum,” Brennan explained. “Only the board would be able to access these funds.”
That measure also passed unanimously.
