The school board for the Meridian Public School District is considering a proposed budget for the 2024-2025 school year that estimates total revenues of $86.8 million and total expenditures of more than $121 million.
The expenditures will include projects funded by more than $34.3 million in funds already received by the district in revenues and carried over in fund balances from previous school years, said Carolyn Davis, the district’s chief financial officer.
The school board reviewed the preliminary budget during a special-called meeting Friday morning in the Meridian High School multipurpose building. The board will hold a public hearing on the 2024-2025 proposed school budget at 5 p.m., Monday, July 15, and could vote on it as early as the regularly scheduled board meeting to be held at 5:30 p.m. after the public hearing.
The preliminary budget is less than one approved by the board last July that included $136.5 million in expenses and $101 million in revenue.
“We’re in a lot better shape eight years later than we were when I started, and as you can tell, there’s a lot of momentum going on in the Meridian Public School District right now, and that’s a testament to the district team and Ms. Davis being willing to be conservative with me the first few years,” said Superintendent Amy J. Carter.
The vast majority of building, renovation and upgrade projects going on at city school campuses are being funded through a $34 million school bond issue approved by city voters in August 2022 and from about $47 million allocated to Meridian Public School District in three pandemic relief fund packages. With pandemic relief funds coming to an end, the budget should begin to normalize going forward after this year, district administrators said.
The school district has reached its millage rate cap of 55 mills and will not ask county supervisors to increase it, Davis said.
“Covid had some negative implications but it also was a blessing for school districts, as well as our bond funding, so we’re in a great place right now,” Carter said.
Slightly more than $33 million of the projected $86,824,000 in revenue for the 2024-2025 school year is expected to come from state funding, Davis said. That is a more than $4 million increase over the current allocation with the state’s new funding for school districts.
Revenue from ad valorem taxes and local sources is projected to be about $25 million and more than $27.7 million in federal funding, a decrease over the current year.
The district’s largest expenditures in the proposed budget include about $40 million for instruction, or about 33% of the budget, and $42.3 million for building projects and districtwide operations.
In other business at the meeting, the school board approved a change order to repair some damaged curbs that boarder the turf and track at Meridian High, approved installing an additional rock-to-level transition at the edges, approved installing six new grounds boxes and leveling goal posts.
The board also approved a change order to projects on the Northwest and West Hills campuses.