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HomeMy WebLinkAboutC.054.93011_1176 (2)TRAVEL ALLOWANCE FOR BOARD MEMBERS: Deputy County Manager Blumenstein said the board's travel had not been increased since 1997. She recommended the following increases: Current Proposed Chairman $2,700 $4,920 Commissioners $2,400 $4,320 (ea.) OTIO by Commissioner Norman to increase the board's travel in the FY 06- 07 budget as proposed by the Deputy County Manager. VOTING: Ayes — 5; Nays — 0. COUNTY MANAGER'S TRAVEL: Chairman Tice noted an error in the budget submitted for the county manager's travel. Blumenstein said she would correct the error by increasing the manager's travel allowance from $7,200 a year to $9,000. (The manager's travel increased on February 7, 2006.) SCHOOL FUNDING: Deputy County Manager Blumenstein distributed updated current expense spreadsheets for the schools using January enrollments. She provided the information due to dissatisfaction from the Mooresville Schools about the funding method. (At the May 18 budget meeting, Mooresville Superintendent Dr. Boyles said that by using the Best 1 of 2 method, the system would have a $300,000 deficit during 06-07, and this was because there was no consideration of the number of students added after the first month.) Blumenstein said the findings, after using the same pool of funds allocated for 2006-07, and using the January 2006 enrollment numbers, resulted in a funding decrease for Iredell-Statesville, due to a loss of students, and a funding increase for Mooresville, due to an increase in students. Mashburn said the per pupil amount received by the school systems was decided by the commissioners. He said that even if "projected enrollment numbers" were used, the funding would be about the same. He read the statute as follows: G.S. 115C-430. Apportionment of county appropriations among local school administrative units. "If there is more than one local school administrative unit in a county, all appropriations by the county to the local current expense funds of the units, except appropriations funded by supplemental taxes levied less than countywide pursuant to a local act of G.S. 115C-501 to 115C-511, must be apportioned according to the membership of each unit. County appropriations are properly apportioned when the dollar amount obtained by dividing the amount so apportioned to each unit by the total membership of the unit is the same for each unit. The total membership of the local administrative unit is the unit's average daily membership for the budget year to be determined by and certified to the unit and the county board of commissioners by the State Board of Education. " Johnson and Williams mentioned the possibility of obtaining a legal opinion on the matter. Blumenstein said up until 2005-06, the county had always used the DPI projected numbers issued around April. She said that in January of 2005, during a meeting with the Iredell-Statesville Schools, the formula method (funding based on real numbers instead of projections) was agreed upon. Mashburn suggested that the county use state numbers or projections and then to allocate on an average daily membership basis. He said for FY 06-07, current expense would be increased by the $33 million or 6.53%. Mashburn said that by using this method, Iredell-Statesville would have a loss of $105,358 for FY 06-07, and for Mooresville, there would be a $103,639 increase. He said the per pupil amount came out to be $1,266.