School district budget presented for Fiscal Year 24-25
No millage increase is requested in the upcoming year’s budget
The Fiscal Year 2024-25 budget proposal for the DeSoto County School District (DCS) was presented to the Board of Education on Thursday afternoon. The Board will now look at the budget with expected approval of the proposal to come during the board meeting on Monday, June 24 at 10 a.m. That meeting will be held at the district’s Central Services Building board room in Hernando. The finalized budget goes into effect on July 1.
Highlights of the presentation Thursday include that the district will again hold the millage request steady at 52.85, the same as the current fiscal year. Of that amount, three mills are for a three mill note and that remains the same as the current budget. That will generate $113.8 million for operations and the three mill note will generate about $6.9 million.
The local part of a teacher’s salary is increasing by an additional $1,100 annually. PERS is increasing by 0.5 percent, and athletic/student activity supplement increases are also part of the budget.
The school district is adding seven additional school resource officers (SROs) for a total of 58 deputies and police officers in DCS schools. A total of $4.23 million is being budgeted for SROs.
Schools are also benefiting from a new formula for determining the state’s contribution to public schools. Gone is the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, or MAEP. Instead, state funding will be figured with the Mississippi Student Funding Formula, or MSFF. With that formula, $219.6 million will be sent to the district, amounting to 94 percent of state revenues heading to DCS.
“We’re very excited about the new funding formula,” said DCS Chief Financial Officer Stacey Graves. “DeSoto County Schools are very fortunate,” pointing out the district is getting close to $15.9 million more under MSFF over MAEP.
Schools also get federal funds for such things as special education, school food service, and the Marine Corps Junior ROTC programs at Horn Lake, Lake Cormorant and Olive Branch high schools.
Total budgeted expenditures for the upcoming fiscal year are about $300 million less than the current fiscal year with fewer dollars pegged for special revenue and capital projects.
Instruction will demand much of the expenditures at $234.4 million, with support services the next highest category at close to $86 million.
