The Pine Bluff School Board unanimously approved the proposed budget of expenditures for the 2013-2014 fiscal year during a special called meeting Tuesday evening.
Interim superintendent Linda Watson told the board that Arkansas law requires that the budget be passed and then published in the newspaper at least 60 days before the Sept. 18 school board election.
“It must be advertised in the paper by July 20,” Watson said.
The proposed expenditures include a salary fund of $21 million; instructional fund of $7.4 million; maintenance and operation fund of $5 million; dedicated maintenance and operation fund of $500,000; pupil transportation fund of $1.8 million; other operating fund of $4,000; and a bonded debt payment of $2,148,919.
A proposed school tax levy at the current rate of 41.7 mills is included as the method of funding for the proposed expenditures.
The millage is broken down as 25.0 mills specifically voted for general maintenance and operation, 2.0 mills voted for dedicated maintenance and operation expenditures dedicated specifically for purposes of purchasing school buses, equipping, renovating and repairing school facilities; and 14.7 mills voted for debt service previously voted as a continuing levy pledged for the retirement of existing bonded indebtedness.
The surplus revenues produced each year by debt service millage may be used by the district for other school purposes.