Slightly more interesting than usual

This year's MG school district annual meeting will be held Wednesday, Oct 5th at 7pm in the IMC at Glacial Drumlin school.

In addition to the usual budget approvals three items will be put before the electorate for approval.  These items give approval to the board for the sale or lease of the Nichols building and site, lease of the Maywood site and sale of 2 residential properties on Jerome Street across from the high school.

The Madison School District has expressed interest in leasing the Maywood site for their Nuestro Mundo Elementary Charter School.  This would be a great opportunity for our district to cut costs while maintaining the building and provide a different opportunity for MG students.  We don't have any prospects for the Nichols property, but by getting authorization it will communicate to potential developers that we are serious about moving forward.

Update:  the meeting booklet can be found by clicking here. 

Annual Meeting tomorrow.

This year's Budget Hearing and Annual Meeting will be held tomorrow (Wednesday the 6th) at 7:00pm in the High School Auditorium.  The annual meeting is a statutory requirement where the electors of the district (that means you) approve the tax levy for the year and provide various other  authorizations that allow the district to do business.  Note that this isn't a meeting of the School Board, but of the electors of the district. 

The budget documents can be found here.  The compete 60 page district report is not yet available on the website.

Total general fund revenue the district can raise is determined by the State's revenue caps, which are explained here. - Basically the revenue cap takes what the district spent last year per student, adds a little bit and then multiplies it by the number of students using a three year rolling average.  (Additional "categorical aids" are available for specific purposes, such as special education.)  The district is allowed to raise that much money for general operations.  The State then takes another complicated formula and determines how much general fund aid it will provide the district.  The district can then levy the difference between the revenue cap and the state funding on the local property tax.  Additional amounts are levied for voter approved referenda, in our case building projects. 

Because Monona Grove has a high ratio of total assessed property valuation per student the percentage of state aid is relatively low.

This year's estimated revenue limit is $31,963,133 for the general fund.  State aid will pay $11,871,795, leaving a general fund levy of $20,091,338.   Additional community service fund and referendum approved debt bring the total proposed levy to $24,893,975 - which equals a levy of $12.91 per thousand of assessed property value.

Total expenditures will increase by 2.44% in this budget, but the levy mill rate will increase by 6.7% due to the changes in the aid and revenue sources.  (Last year the levy actually decreased 2%).

Its in the Mail

I have heard some complaints about the annual budget flier being delivered late in Monona, with many people not receiving it until the day of the meeting.

The budget flier was delivered to the Post Office the week of the 8th, after approval by the board. This should have allowed plenty of time for postal delivery, and indeed the flier was delivered in Cottage Grove the beginning of the week prior the meeting. However the USPS apparently mishandled those destined for Monona addresses. The district did inquire with the local Post Office when it was noticed the flier wasn't received, at which point the USPS did deliver it.

The budget flier, with its annual meeting notice, is sent out each year as a courtesy to the residents of the district. It is my understanding that most districts don't do this, relying instead on the usual meeting notices posted in newspapers, district offices and on-line.