Prairie Grove School Board Approves 2016-17 Budget

Superintendent Expects Low Student Growth In District

PRAIRIE GROVE — Prairie Grove School Board last week approved a $15.5 million budget for the 201617 school year that projects $15.6 million in revenues and proposes just under that in expenditures.

The budget proposed by Superintendent Allen Williams was approved without much discussion.

For revenues, the district expects to receive about $5.5 million from property taxes, almost $9 million from state foundation aid and $1.3 million from other state designated funding and sources.

Budgeted expenditures include about $7.4 million for certified salaries, $3.3 million for instruction and pupil support, $2 million for operations and maintenance and almost $700,000 for transportation. The school will pay $1.1 million in debt payments for the year.

The budget projects a balance of about $2.3 million at the end of the year, June 30, 2017.

The school’s state foundation aid

is based on school enrollment from the previous year and Williams said he expects to see some growth this year in the number of students.

“We’re selling a lot of houses ( in Prairie Grove) but we had a large graduating class for 2016,” Williams said. “With all the selling and the number of folks coming in, I expect to see a little growth.”

The class of 2016 had 140 graduates.

He reported that 1,836 students showed up the first day of school Aug. 15, two more students than the first day last year. The first day of school typically has the fewest students, with enrollment figures leveling out after the 10th day of school, Williams said. Official numbers are reported to the Arkansas Department of Education on Oct. 1.

The district’s average enrollment last year was 1,871 and Williams said he expects it will be around the same this year.

In other action, school board members approved a low bid of $ 71,950 from Franklin & Son to reroof the old competition gym.

They also approved a number of student transfers in and out of the district. In most cases, students had moved to another school district and were requesting to remain with their previous district. The board approved 20 student transfers from Prairie Grove to Farmington and four from Prairie Grove to Lincoln. Six students requested to transfer from other districts to Prairie Grove.

Williams handed out copies of a letter addressed to school board members from parent LeAnn Suggs. She asked the board to reconsider having graduation ceremonies on a Sunday afternoon because of conflicts with church services and also to consider moving the location of graduation from the football field to the University of Arkansas campus.

Prairie Grove High held its 2016 graduation on a Sunday afternoon to avoid conflicts with state tournaments for baseball and softball. For 2017, the Arkansas Activities Association has offered to work around graduation dates in scheduling ballgames. This may allow Prairie Grove to return to a Saturday graduation date, Williams said.

He did not discuss her request to move graduation to the UA. Last year, graduation was moved inside to the Tiger basketball gym because of pending bad weather. Because of this, the school had to limit the number of tickets per graduate.

Sugg wrote that graduating classes continue to increase in Prairie Grove and school facilities are not large enough to accommodate graduates’ family members and friends who want to attend. Having graduation at the UA would allow more to attend and would prevent last minute changes due to weather, Sugg wrote.