Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
The Sidney School Board Monday night approved the 2018-2019 budget.
The budget summary shows an increase from 2016-2017 with all funds totaling about $17.3 million. The District’s actual/estimated disbursements and transfers decreased slightly for 2017-2018 to $17.2. The 2018-2019 budget is at almost $22.9 million. The General Fund is budgeted at $7,608,758, Bond Fund at $965,456 and the Qualified Capital Purchase Undertaking Fund at $265,908. The Qualified Capital Purchase Undertaking Fund increased from $167,016 for the 2017-2018 year to $648,632 for 2018-2019. The Bond Fund increased by almost $130,000 from this year. The Depreciation Fund increased from almost $319,000 this year to $570,440 for 2018-2019.
The General Fund increased from almost $14.7 million this year to about $19 million for the 2018-2019 school year.
The property tax request for 2017-2018 amounted to $8,243,841 for the General Fund, $821,931 for the Bond Funds and $206,120 for the Qualified Capital Purpose Undertaking Fund for a total mill levy of 1.37641.
The General Fund goes down slightly for 2018-2019 from $8.2 million to $7.6 million for 2018-2019. The Bonds Funds increase by almost $144,000 for 2018-2019, and the Qualified Capital Purpose Undertaking Fund sees an increase of about $58,000 for 2018-2019.
The proposed mill levy for 2018-2019 is 1.05.
In other business, the board approved changes to policy 5017 Routine Directory Information. Approval of the policy was tabled in the last board meeting partly out of concern with what information would be released to whom. One of the changes made to the policy is instead of “The school district shall disclose the following,” the policy will read “The school district may disclose the following.” The policy is specific of what information will be available and to whom. The policy specifically says a student’s Social Security number is not part of the directory information.
The board also discussed, then approved changes to policy 5026 Sex Discrimination and Sexual Harassment of Students.
Director of IT Services Matt McKay reported on implementation of the 1:1 Chromebook program. He said as of Monday the District had about 500 students using a Chromebook; about 33 students are using their own Chromebook computer. McKay said students using their own devices will need specific programs installed for school assignments. He added the unexpected surge in enrollment resulted in the District needing more computers. However, overall the process of issuing students their own computer went well.
“Check out process wet fairly smooth,” he said.
He added the District’s computer server has plenty of room.
“We’re way below capacity,” McKay said. “We really do have a robust server.”
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