NEWS

Lamar County School District: No tax increase

Ellen Ciurczak
American Staff Writer

Lamar County School District will not need a tax increase to balance its budget for fiscal year 2014-15, said district business manager Jennifer Hession.

“We do not feel like it will require any type of millage increase,” she said.

Hession said the district is asking the county for the same ad valorem taxes as last year — $22.5 million. The current millage is 54.03 mills.

The district’s budget is $83.74 million. It has about 9,600 students and 1,300 employees.

The district got about $2.6 million additional dollars from the state this year. Hession said about $1.7 million of that was for the state’s new teacher pay raises.

Interim Superintendent Tess Smith said some of the rest of the money will go to hire new teachers.

“Two special education and six (teachers) will go toward elementary to help with growth there,” she said.

Smith said she wasn’t sure which schools would be getting the new teachers. The district has about 725 teachers.

Hession said the rest of the state money would be used to pay for an increase in employer contributions to worker health insurance premiums and a raise in utility costs.

Despite those expenses, both Hession and Smith said they thought the budget worked out well this year.

“It’s quite a process — I’m very happy,” Smith said .

“Overall, I’m pleased with it,” Hession said.

The Petal School Board voted 3-0 Monday to approve the school district’s budget. Bruce Magee and Troy Wicktom were absent.

The $36.49 million budget includes 10 percent cuts in every department. District officials said the cuts were necessary because the district was not getting its full allotment of state funding under the Mississippi Adequate Education Program.

If you go

What:

Lamar County School Board votes on the district’s budget

When:

6 p.m., Monday

Where:

District headquarter, 424 Martin Luther King Dr., Purvis