The Louisville Municipal School District held a public budget meeting on Thursday, July 25. During this meeting, the board and members of the public attending heard the projected budget for the 2024 – 2025 school year.
Stacey VanLandingham, Director of Finance, led the meeting. She noted that the current mill is capped at 55 percent, which is no change from 2022 – 2023 or the 2023 – 2024 school year rate. She noted that the debt service on this has changed, but this will have no impact on taxpayers due to the small percentage of change.
VanLandingham also noted that there is a change to federal funds coming to the district due to ESSR funds falling off. She added that the renovation projects in the district – replacing roofs or upgrading playgrounds – were ongoing and the ESSR money was factored into this year’s budget to pay for those projects.
The projected budget for the 2024 – 2025 school year is $38, 172, 302. By comparison, for the 2023 – 2024 school year, the projected budget was $41,966,422.00.
The ad valorem portion of the budget is $7.5 million. Federal monies make up nearly a quarter of the budget at $9.5 million. The state provided $18.5 million of the budget, with the new funding formula providing LMSD with $17 million.
VanLandingham explained that this year the state had adopted a new school funding formula, which is a “weighted” funding formula – meaning schools are now provided with per-student funding based on net enrollment and a base amount. Students falling into the following categories would provide an increase to that base amount:
- Low income students
- English language learners
- Special education students
- Gifted students
- Students enrolled in career and technical education
- Students in districts with concentrated levels of poverty
- Students in districts that are sparsely populated
The base amount is $6,695.34 per student before any additional funding for the previous criteria is added.
For the 2024 – 2025 school year, Mississippi students now receive $200 million more than under the MAEP formula.
This year, instruction gets the largest portion of the budget at fifty percent (last year, this was 41 percent). Maintenance and operations garners another 33 percent of the budget.
VanLandingham was asked by Brenda Johnson of the school board if there would be a raise in taxes for the community, to which VanLandingham provided an definitive “no.”
The proposed budget will be considered at the August 13 regularly scheduled board meeting at 5:30 PM. This is held at the central office board room.
