In 2005, the Indian River School District paid $686,773 in electric bills. With an impending electric hike of about 100 percent for the School District coming on May 1 that number will increase by $642,180 to about $1.3 million the district’s finance director Patrick Miller told school board members on Tuesday.
That is just one reason for the upcoming March 28 district referendum, he said. And, he added, “In no means will the referendum solve all of the energy costs.”
The referendum later this month will ask district residents three questions. It will ask those residents to accept a hike in property taxes to pay for the district’s current expenses, a salary raise for district teachers and staff and future major capital improvement.
If passed, district residents will pay an additional 16.5 cents per $100 of assessed property value in the first year and an additional nine cents in the second year. Miller told school board members and others in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting, that the tax hike would cost the average resident $38.68 in the first year and $21.10 in the second. And Miller made a point to tell all in attendance on Tuesday that the referendum was not the district’s first option.
From 2002 to 2006, the school reduced its budgetary expenses by more than $5 million. Of the reductions, the district took about $2.5 million out of locally-funded teaching salaries and more than $570,000 in the district’s operational budgets. Since 1996, the district has also taken almost $600,000 out of the technology and science lab budgets.
Miller said that on Tuesday that if the referendum doesn’t pass, the district will try again only a couple of months later. If the second referendum was then unsuccessful, it would have to consider significant cuts in its programs to support much-needed renovation projects.
Current Expense
The Current Expense question on this month’s referendum will ask district residents to pay for the district’s rising energy, utility and fuel expenses. It will also fund building maintenance and the needs of Georgetown and Millsboro middle Schools, which are currently being renovated.
Miller explained through his presentation that destruction in the Gulf Coast Region, energy deregulation and the rising cost of Delmarva Power electric prices have made the energy situation a dire situation for the district.
In the building maintenance category, taxpayers money will go to fund new district facilities that are not eligible for minor capital improvement funding, inflation costs and a static maintenance budget. And, on the same night that the district voted to open Georgetown Middle School for administration purposes in the summer and for students in the fall, Miller explained that there will be costs involved with opening the new school. The district will have to purchase textbooks and library books and it will have to pay for additional school staffers and athletic equipment among other expenses.
The Current Expense question will be the most costly question on the referendum for district tax payers. It will ask for the residents to pay $22.27 of the first-year’s costs and $8.21 of the second year’s $21.10.
Staff Salaries
The district will ask its residents to pay just more than $12 in the first and second years to pay for a 4-percent salary increase for the district’s teachers and staff. On average, that will add $491 to each staff member’s salary because the district only pays about 35 percent of their salary and the state picks up the rest.
Miller said that the salary increase is necessary, however, because the district is losing qualified teachers to other districts because of the low salaries it offers throughout a staff member’s career.
“We have a concern that we’re constantly falling behind,” Miller said. “We’re losing staff members because they can get an $8,000 to $10,000 raise (by going to another district).”
Compared to eight other local school districts, Indian River ranks last in starting teaching salaries with a bachelor’s degree and no experience, and a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree with 10 years of experience. Indian River ranks eighth out of nine in the master’s degree with no experience category.
Most numbers — outside of Sussex Tech — only differ, however, by about $1,000. In the bachelor’s degree with no experience category, for example, Laurel ranks second with a starting salary of $35,666 and Indian River ranks last with a salary of $34,780.
Capital Improvement
The district will ask local residents to pay only about $3.50 in the first year and nothing in the second to help pay to replace the roofs on Selbyville Middle, North Georgetown and Long Neck Elementary Schools.
Miller said that leakage problems in the buildings since 1995 have caused damage to the walls. Money will also be used to permanently fix drainage problems in the buildings, taking over for Minor Capital Improvement funds which have only temporarily repaired problems in the three schools.
The state will pay 60 percent of the more than $4 million in renovation costs for the three schools and the district will pick up the remaining 40 percent. Indian River’s obligation will cost $1.64 million.