Gilford School District expects to give at least $670k back to taxpayers

The School District is expecting to realize a savings of more than $800,000 at the end of the current school year, and expects to return at least $670,000 of that amount to offset property taxes collected to fund the next school year.

At the School Board meeting on Monday night, Assistant Superintendent for Business Scott Isabelle told the board that the district expects to close its books at the end of the school year with a balance of $843,000. He said this was a conservative estimate, the final figure could be greater depending on revenues during the final two months of school.

The estimated savings represents 3.5-percent of the $23,688,571 voters approved as a budget for the 2008-2009 school year. Isabelle said the district will ask the School Board at its next meeting to approve a request to use about $170,000 of the unspent funds for a variety of projects and equipment, and use the remaining money to reduce taxes.

Of the factors that contributed to the savings, the greatest difference was due to a single student. The district was expecting the arrival of a particular student who would require special services costing $290,000 per year. "At the time we built the budget, we anticipating a student moving into Gilford," Isabelle said. The student ended up moving to a neighboring town, saving Gilford taxpayers nearly $300,000 a year.

Insurance costs are generally some of a district's largest expenses, and budgeting for the next year's insurance can be difficult because the true price for a coming year is not known to until after the budget is approved by voters in March.

When budgeting for health insurance, the district uses a "guaranteed maximum increase." The projected maximum increase for insurance for the 08-09 year was 11.7-percent, so the budget included enough money to cover that increase. When the new policies came in, the increase was only 4.1-percent, a bottom-line difference of about $260,000.

Another significant savings for the district was due to the falling cost of fuel oil. The district had budgeted to buy oil at $3.10 per gallon. Shortly after the budget was approved, it appeared that this figure was too low, as the best contracted price the district could get was more than $4 per gallon. However, that fuel provider, Fred Fuller, allowed the district to renegotiate its contract to $2.19 when oil prices bottomed out several months later. This fluctuation ended up saving the district about $200,000.

Lastly, the district avoided paying about $100,000 in salaries for some assistant teachers and part-time special education teachers when federal grants became available to pay the positions.

From that savings, Isabelle said the district will ask the School Board to allow $170,000 to be spent on a few unanticipated expenses. Some of the money will be used to replace broken equipment, provide upgraded technological cables, and to install a projector in the high school's auditorium.

Also from the anticipated left over revenue, the district will ask to spend about $24,000 to supplement the $9,000 voters approved in a petitioned warrant article to install a sidewalk along Alvah Wilson Road, running along the middle school's side of the street, from Belknap Mountain Road to the area near Sprucewood.

The authors of the warrant article, Isabelle explained, did their research and figured that $9,000 would cover the cost of the sidewalk. However, he said that the sidewalk must be built to strict standards, and those standards have pushed the cost up to an estimated $33,000.

The School Board is expected to vote on the proposal at one of its meetings next month.