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School district adopts $40.3 million budget
Published Friday, July 3, 2009
NATCHEZ — The Natchez-Adams School District adopted its $40.3 million budget Thursday evening.
While the district’s budget can still be altered if necessary, board members Wayne Barnett and Dr. Benny Wright voted against the budget’s adoption.
Barnett and Wright voiced concerns that the new budget could cause an increase in the amount of taxes paid by county residents, and asked that the vote be postponed until the board had a more clear picture of what the budget would look like.
Barnett said he is concerned the new property taxes will have an impact on the amount of taxes collected by the school board and the amount paid by county residents.
Natchez-Adams School District Business Manager Margaret Parson said since the county’s tax rolls are not yet complete it’s too soon to tell if the budget will increase taxes.
“It’s not our intent to increase taxes,” Parson said.
And while Barnett wanted the vote postponed, NASD Attorney Bruce Kuehnle said had the board not adopted the budget, the district, in theory, could have shut down.
“(Adopting the budget) approves their expenditures,” Kuehnle said. “This allows them to keep things running.”
And fueling that budget is recent news from the state regarding their contribution to the district.
Parson said she was notified Wednesday the state would allocate approximately $17 million to the district’s budget.
As early as last week Parson was still waiting to learn exactly how much the state would be contributing.
This year’s funding lacks more than $500,000 cut by the state in January that was supposed to have been scheduled to be replaced this year, Parson said.
“But it’s just not there,” she said.
The school district will present its final budget to the Adams County Board of Supervisors in August for approval.
In other news, the board voted to enter an interlocal agreement aimed at developing a joint recreation complex between the board, Adams County and the City of Natchez.
Kuehnle explained Thursday’s vote does not bind the board to any action, but gives the board an opportunity to be part of the planning committee and have a voice on the project.
The Natchez Board of Aldermen voted to join the agreement in June and the Adams County Board of Supervisors are expected to vote on the matter at their July 7 meeting.
Comments
Posted by EnKiKur (Marty Ellerbe) on July 3, 2009 at 7:55 a.m. (Suggest removal)
See, tax increase for recreation complex. NASD has been MAKING about a 3 MILLION DOLLAR A YEAR PROFIT for the last few years- according to their anual report anyway. Those reports are available online and at the school board office and the library.
Even though they make a profit each year, each year they approve a budget that is greater than the previous years' expenditures. If I recall correctly, lately they've been making about a 10% profit. Pretty good for a public body huh?
This is how the Obama stimulus package/tax cuts are going to work. The states are going to get money for a short period in exchange for agreeing to start programs they must later continue without federal funding- meaning state and local taxes will have to come up.
Posted by mrmojorisin (anonymous) on July 3, 2009 at 3:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
If they are making $3 million profit each year, why don't they spend some money on some new textbooks? Offer more money for better teachers and get rid of the sludge...
I'm just askin'...
---mojo
Posted by sdaafrye (anonymous) on July 3, 2009 at 11:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)
For that type of budget we should expect better quality of education
Posted by sammohon (anonymous) on July 5, 2009 at 6:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Enk...to add to your comments...along with the mandates, there are no increases in accountability either in distribution of funding or for performance of teachers and children.
This figure is horribly inflated for the rate of return on investment we should be getting and it's repeated nationwide.
People wonder why the Natchez school system is so fractioned between public, parochial and private systems...if the public schools were using these incredible funding amounts to actually teach children WELL, the raison d'etre for the existence of private schools would evaporate...not to mention the problem of attracting industry.
It is a constant downward spiral, in lieu of demanding excellence, we have parents who didn't learn themselves, and won't discipline or allow discipline, sending kids to administrators who can't or won't administer, teachers who can't or won't teach, and kids coming out of the process who can't read or write, don't know history, science or math or even how to ennunciate when engaged in conversation at the fast food joints.
Posted by JoeBlow (anonymous) on July 6, 2009 at 10:54 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I wonder how many children are in the school district, What does that amount come to per child? I'm sure that it would shock us especially compared to the amount per child that the private schools have to work with.
Posted by headchick (anonymous) on July 6, 2009 at 12:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
There are around 4,000 children in the school district. But, remember when comparing the public to the private schools, that public schools have to take everyone who comes along. They do not get to choose which students they will take and which they won't. They also don't have the liberty to ask parents to take their children elsewhere when they don't perform up to par.
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