Center Grove schools will have almost $8 million more to work with in its budget than it did last year, following an increase in education funding from the state and increased property values in the Center Grove area.
The overall budget increased to $101.3 million, up from $93.7 million, according to school district documents.
During the 2020-21 school year, Center Grove schools received $58.7 million in state tuition support, but that jumped to $63.9 million this school year. Of that money, $56.1 million will go to education, and the almost $8 million remainder will supplement the property taxes that fund the $22.3 million operations fund, according to school district documents.
The increase in state funding for education comes from a 238-student increase since last year and a change in the budget formula that puts more money in education, said Paul Gabriel, the school district’s chief financial officer.
State lawmakers have directed $1.9 billion more than usual towards education over the next two years, according to Chalkbeat, an education reporting website.
The increases have shown in other local school districts. Clark-Pleasant schools, for example, has allocated $5 million more towards its education fund than it did last year and Greenwood schools allocated more than $2 million more for education in 2022 than it did for 2021.
With an increase of more than $5 million in the education budget, much of that money is going to teacher raises. The Center Grove school board approved teacher raises last month. The approval increased the minimum teaching salary to $44,169, up 8% from $40,849, and the top teacher salary increased to $85,298 from $78,888.
The $22.3 million operations budget is an increase of almost $1.3 million from the previous year. Property taxes supplement transfers of money from the education fund, and the increase was partially funded by an almost 8% increase in property value from the previous year, Gabriel said.
With the operations fund, Center Grove schools pays salaries of employees who aren’t specifically tied to education, such as bus drivers, custodians and food service works, as well as administrators who aren’t tied to a specific school building, such as the superintendent and assistant superintendents.
Center Grove residents will see likely see an increase in their property taxes of eight tenths of one cent per $100 of assessed value, bringing the tax to about $1.02 for every $100,000. The slight increase comes because the budget increase narrowly outpaces the increase in property values, he said.
The $22.9 million debt service fund covers any projects the district undertakes that haven’t been paid off. The budgeted amount is an increase of more than $2 million due to new renovation projects to Sugar Grove and Pleasant Grove elementary schools that the school district is taking out bonds for, Gabriel said.
The budget will now head to the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance for approval, which typically takes place toward the end of the calendar year.
