By By ERIKA PICKLES / Niles Daily Star
NILES – Niles Community Schools learned recently that it would get twice the funding increase in the per-pupil grant this year, meaning instead of getting $48 per student, the school system will receive $96 per student.
All school systems in the new bill would receive a $48 increase in the per-pupil grant. Districts that received the minimum last year of $7,108 would get $48 per-pupil on top of that, equaling a total of $96.
The new budget for K-12 schools is an attempt to close gaps in state aid by allowing lower-funded school districts to receive twice the amount in this and future fiscal years.
While this may seem like good news for Niles schools, Superintendent Doug Law said it actually means the budget is down.
He explained that the school board is required to pass a budget the June before the start of the following school year, meaning board members have to almost guess or give an approximate amount for each student.
"The board budgeted $70 per student and we got about $25 more per student. The problem is that we had an extra $100,000 which was offset by the 50 students we were down on student count day. Overall, we are down $250,000," Law explained.
He added that there will be no immediate cuts as the school system will use funds from the fund balance if needed. However, he did add that adjustments will have to be made in the budget for the future.
"It's impossible to make good decisions when you have no idea what you're getting. Luckily we budgeted close to what we received and we have money we can count on. Hopefully this bad experience will help motivate the legislation to get the school budget done earlier so this doesn't happen again," Law said.