2011-12 Garden City School Budget: A Voting Primer

As part of Patch’s month-long series focusing on the upcoming school elections, Garden City Patch is bringing you a primer on the recently adopted school budget for the 2011-12 school year.

The Garden City Board of Education unanimously adopted Superintendent Robert Feirsen’s recommended $101,117,058 budget. The budget-to-budget increase is 3.19 percent and the tax levy increase (with STAR) totals 2.58 percent.

The budget cuts the full-time equivalent of 12.3 teachers due to enrollment decreases and more "efficient scheduling" and seven assistant coaches because school officials believe supervision could be provided by other coaches.

Class size at the elementary level was first increased to 26 students per class but later restored to the board recommended 25. Also restored was the JV golf team because local golf courses offered to defray greens fees, which Dr. Feirsen called “a significant expense.”

The budget will be distributed to the district's individual schools and the Garden City Public Library May 2. A budget hearing will take place May 10 at 8:15 p.m. at Garden City High School. The budget vote will be held May 17.

If the budget fails, the board is required to adopt a contingent budget.

The contingent budget cap for allowable budget-to-budget increases for 2011-12 is 1.92 percent, according to school officials. In order to achieve this percentage, an additional $936,000 to $1.1 million would be cut from the budget.

The contingent budget would result in a budget increase of between 2.24 and 2.07 percent and a tax increase of between 1.52 and 1.33 percent.