In years past, school districts could not rely on the state to keep up with education payments, could this year be different?
With the newer evidence-based funding model and the state budget already in the books, school districts are getting their 2018-19 fiscal year budget projections done and approved.
Knoxville District 202 is no different.
After posting a deficit in the year before, Superintendent Steve Wilder tells WGIL that he’s projecting a surplus in the coming fiscal year.
“…partially due to the state coming through on a budget, the new evidence-based model has been a huge help,” said Wilder. “That’s given us some additional dollars last year and we expect some additional dollars this year to do good things for kids. So all that is helping and putting us in the black right now.”
Wilder added that administration is pretty aware of their expenses, but sometimes revenue is a guessing game.
A budget hearing is scheduled for September 17th prior to the monthly board meeting for the Knoxville School Board.
While looking forward to this year, Wilder said the district was able to start a week earlier and not have any early dismissals now that all buildings have air conditioning, which leads to the district to finish the first semester before the Christmas break.
He says that students will really benefit from that, taking semester finals before the winter break and academic loss sets in.
“In order to do that we try to balance the calendar. Try to get the same number of days in the first and second semester. And this year in order to achieve that, and again thanks to the air conditioning we can do that, it meant starting a little bit earlier so that’s kind of the thinking that goes into that.”
Wilder said that in the next year or two the district could shift back to a later start.
Knoxville teachers were back in the classroom on August 13th, with students’ first day being the 15th.
