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Enrollment up at Hamilton schools; state funding down
By Cindy Iutzi /Gate City Staff Writer
HAMILTON, Ill. - Enrollment in the Hamilton School District is up, but the district's first draft spending plan shows a deficit.
Superintendent Dr. James Jackson reviewed preliminary budget numbers with the school board Wednesday that show a $122,000 deficit in the education fund's nearly $4 million budget.
The total budget is about $5 million, roughly the same as last year.
Jackson said the deficit is the result of a large reduction in state hold harmless funds and the 2 to 3 percent monthly increase in expenses related to fuel.
The hold harmless funds, financial aid the State of Illinois has been sending to small, rural school districts for many years, dwindled this year from an expected $192,506 to the actual receipt of $28,000 for 2008-2009.
Jackson also said the district has spent some money in the district to get it “up to snuff” with other districts in the area: hiring a technology director and buying library books, air conditioning, new computers and new reading books for some elementary classes.
“We have to ask ourselves: Do we want to operate in the red, make cuts or get a new revenue stream?” Jackson said. “We can do two of those things now: Look at making cuts in line items and make personnel cuts in February.”
A new revenue stream would involve going to the voters for a tax increase, one of the goals the board established during a planning retreat earlier this month.
With the cost of goods and services rising steadily, Jackson said some type of adjustments will have to be made.
Jackson doesn't hold much hope for a countywide 1-cent sales tax being approved by Hancock County voters during this time of high fuel prices and flood damage.
He noted that this year the state of Iowa passed a 1-cent sales tax to benefit schools.
“Every county in Iowa passed it,” Jackson said. “Not one county didn't pass it.”
Although Hamilton residents approved using an established 51-cent tax for the education fund more than three years ago, Jackson believes it will take an additional $1 to keep the district healthy for the next 10 years.
The 51-cent tax was being used to retire the elementary school bond, and after two tries at the polls, the residents approved a referendum to shift the money to the education fund as soon as the bond was repaid in 2005.
Another 50-cent tax increase might only be effective for five years, he said.
If the board decides to go ahead with the $1 tax asking, the plan is to put it on the ballot for the Nov. 4, 2009 election in time for the 2010-2011 school year.
Jackson said he is encouraged by the 17 additional students that have been added to the rolls this September, all of them in the junior high and high school. The district had 667 students enrolled as of Wednesday.
“We've had six from Keokuk,” Jackson said.
Also, three or four students transferred in from Nauvoo, and several have moved in from other states, among them Tennessee, Michigan and Ohio.
The 206-student high school has 69 freshmen, 55 sophomores, 38 juniors and 44 seniors. Last year, 36 seniors graduated from Hamilton High School.
Junior high has 58 students in seventh grade and 37 in eighth for a total of 95.
Elementary enrollment lost ground by two students for a total of 366 this year. At-risk pre-k has 40 students; special education pre-k has 20; kindergarten, 45; first grade, 47; second grade, 42; third grade, 51; fourth grade, 43; fifth grade, 36; and sixth grade, 38. Shelly Summers' self-contained classroom has four students.
Superintendent Dr. James Jackson reviewed preliminary budget numbers with the school board Wednesday that show a $122,000 deficit in the education fund's nearly $4 million budget.
The total budget is about $5 million, roughly the same as last year.
Jackson said the deficit is the result of a large reduction in state hold harmless funds and the 2 to 3 percent monthly increase in expenses related to fuel.
The hold harmless funds, financial aid the State of Illinois has been sending to small, rural school districts for many years, dwindled this year from an expected $192,506 to the actual receipt of $28,000 for 2008-2009.
Jackson also said the district has spent some money in the district to get it “up to snuff” with other districts in the area: hiring a technology director and buying library books, air conditioning, new computers and new reading books for some elementary classes.
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A new revenue stream would involve going to the voters for a tax increase, one of the goals the board established during a planning retreat earlier this month.
With the cost of goods and services rising steadily, Jackson said some type of adjustments will have to be made.
Jackson doesn't hold much hope for a countywide 1-cent sales tax being approved by Hancock County voters during this time of high fuel prices and flood damage.
He noted that this year the state of Iowa passed a 1-cent sales tax to benefit schools.
“Every county in Iowa passed it,” Jackson said. “Not one county didn't pass it.”
Although Hamilton residents approved using an established 51-cent tax for the education fund more than three years ago, Jackson believes it will take an additional $1 to keep the district healthy for the next 10 years.
The 51-cent tax was being used to retire the elementary school bond, and after two tries at the polls, the residents approved a referendum to shift the money to the education fund as soon as the bond was repaid in 2005.
Another 50-cent tax increase might only be effective for five years, he said.
If the board decides to go ahead with the $1 tax asking, the plan is to put it on the ballot for the Nov. 4, 2009 election in time for the 2010-2011 school year.
Jackson said he is encouraged by the 17 additional students that have been added to the rolls this September, all of them in the junior high and high school. The district had 667 students enrolled as of Wednesday.
“We've had six from Keokuk,” Jackson said.
Also, three or four students transferred in from Nauvoo, and several have moved in from other states, among them Tennessee, Michigan and Ohio.
The 206-student high school has 69 freshmen, 55 sophomores, 38 juniors and 44 seniors. Last year, 36 seniors graduated from Hamilton High School.
Junior high has 58 students in seventh grade and 37 in eighth for a total of 95.
Elementary enrollment lost ground by two students for a total of 366 this year. At-risk pre-k has 40 students; special education pre-k has 20; kindergarten, 45; first grade, 47; second grade, 42; third grade, 51; fourth grade, 43; fifth grade, 36; and sixth grade, 38. Shelly Summers' self-contained classroom has four students.
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