By JIM BUTLER
On March 30 Northwood School District’s maintenance fund balance was $4.4 million. The Kolin-Ruby Wise balance was $19,000.
School Board member Sandra Franklin wonders if the system can correct what she considers a disparity demonstrated by those numbers.
Franklin is a Ward 1 member. The District 62 fund (Wards 1, 8 and portion of 2) had a $4 million balance at March’s end, according to board records.
Maintenance funds are generated by property taxes approved by voters in respective districts.
Those districts with commercial and industrial development generate more dollars per mill of tax than those without.
An example – Northwood’s 14.29 mills provides about $2.6 million; Plainview’s 19.05 mills yields $186,000.
But changing from district funds to parishwide is a touchy, and difficult, prospect.
Franklin is asking the board’s staff and counsel to at least provide basic information on how, if at all, it could be done.
There is one parishwide maintenance fund. It provides about $3 million annually, with 40+ schools provided for.
But the districts themselves basically carry their own water and the loads vary.
At the top end of the 15 funds are Northwood, District 62, Big Island (Buckeye), Rigolette (Ward 10) and Pineville districts.
The other extreme: Kolin-Ruby Wise, Forest Hill and Plainview.
Beginning balances (7/1/23), current-year revenue and budgeted 6/30/24 balances for the funds:
Rigolette technology: $583,000, $525,000, $160,000; Rigolette main.: $2.5 million, $3.2 million, $710,000; Forest Hill: $119,000, $165,000, $87,000;
Northwood: $3.2 million, $2.6 million, $2.9 million;
Glenmora: $290,000, $279,000, $241,000;
Buckeye: $2.2 million, $1.5 million, $2.2 million; Oak Hill: $679,000, $432,000, $80,000;
Pineville main: $2 million, $2.2 million, $1.6 million; Pineville technology: $381,000, $355,000, $119,000;
Poland: $66,000, $217,000, 59,000;
Kolin-Ruby Wise: $140,000, $180,000, 0;
Lecompte/Lamourie: $457,000, $421,000, $268,000;
Plainview: $293,000, $186,000, $87,000;
Rapides High: $1.8 million, $539,000, $824,000; District 62: $2.9 million, $7.2 million, $1.4 million.