Royal School Board OKs budget proposal

ROYAL CITY — The Royal School Board voted unanimously to adopt its 2017-18 budget, which was presented by Business Manager Greg Pike at the board’s last meeting. Pike’s estimated budget took into consideration the budget trends from past years, as well as factoring in new state funding as a result of the McCleary decision.

The McCleary decision requires the state to work up to fully funding public education within the upcoming years, which will lead to decreased local and federal funding as the state begins to take full funding control.

The budget summary was broke down into categories including general fund, associated student body, debt service, capital projects, and transportation vehicle. When added together, the 2017-18 school year budget is estimated to be $21.2 million, which is an increase from last year’s budget of $19 million.

The board also talked about the potential building of a new housing project by Catholic Charities and the impact it could have on the school district. Because the housing would be constructed by a charity group, it would mean that the organization would not be paying taxes, thereby leaving it up to the school district to cover costs of any students residing in the new housing.

The housing project could also require the addition of new classrooms to accommodate an increased enrollment. When this has happened in the past, the effects had overwhelmed the schools, which had no extra money to cover costs.

The board addressed maintenance projects as well, which have been taking place around the campus, including painting in the middle school, changing filters, a new fence, updating servers and a “Where’s My Bus” app that will be ready to go for the new school year. They discussed the need to find a place for more permanent storage.

The next scheduled board meeting is Aug. 14.