OSD presents $57 million budget for 2018-2019 school year

Published 9:00 am Thursday, May 24, 2018

The Oxford School District’s $57 million budget for the upcoming school year includes two new positions – a high school guidance counselor and a network administrator.

The proposed budget was reviewed last week by the OSD Board of Trustees during a public hearing.

The expected revenues for fiscal year 2018-2019, which runs from July 1 to June 30, are $57,707,672, with $19,098,044 coming from the state, $34,014,138 from local sources and $4,595,490 from federal sources.

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The largest share of federal funds are used for school lunches at a cost of $2.2 million with an additional $65,000 for the summer meal program. About $850,000 in federal funds are for special education and $793,000 for the Title I program.

Most of the local funds, about $26.5 million, come from ad valorem taxes with an additional $6.8 million from ad valorem-debt service, which goes toward bond repayment only.

The OSD is expected to receive about $17 million from the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, or MAEP.

“School districts received level funding this year, so although we are underfunded from the full funding through MAEP, we are receiving essentially the same percentage from previous years,” said OSD Superintendent Brian Harvey. “Oxford is a growing community and our local tax base supports the majority of our budget.”

The largest expense, $23 million, is for teacher salaries. Almost $3 million goes toward instructional support services and $2.2 on school administration salaries.

Other projected expenses include $1.3 million for utilities; $3.2 million for the construction of the new administration building on Sisk Avenue in Oxford Commons; $481,315 for property and liability insurance; $1.4million in general supplies and software; $390,000 for books and periodicals; $713, 780 for furniture and equipment; $580,410 on vehicles and buses and $1.7 million on debt service.

The new high school guidance counselor will earn $70,000 annually and the new network administrator will receive an $80,000 salary.

The school district is also picking up three teacher assistant’s salaries – $80,000 for all three – that were previously employed by ICS Headstart.