Students and families in Warren Township High School District 121 will see a number of fee reductions this school year, after a tentative budget was approved at the Board of Education’s Aug. 16 meeting, reflecting the promises that the district made if the June referendum passed, which it did with more than 53% of the vote.
While the district won’t be receiving funds from the recently-passed referendum until June 2023, the district’s tentative budget, which was unanimously approved, reflects many of the promises that the district made throughout the past year, including lowering student fees.
Student fees will be reduced from $600 to $200, parking fees will be reduced from $340 to $200 and athletic fees will be reduced from $275 to $200.
The reduced fees will result in a $1.2 million loss for the district throughout this school year. Engel says that the district “has to make it through” this final fiscal year before the district begins to receive the funds from the recently-approved referendum. The 2023 fiscal year began last month on July 1, and will continue until June 30, 2023. The district will also be spending $1.3 million on retaining entry-level athletics, something that they were planning on cutting if the referendum did not pass.
The district will begin receiving funds from the referendum at the beginning of the 2024 financial year, in July 2023. The 2023 financial year, which began July 1 of this year, ends June 30. At that time, the district will begin receiving approximately $13.25 million more each year in taxes each year from residents of the district.
Additionally, the district will be investing $750,000 on the building’s facilities. In previous years it’s spent $250,000 a year on maintenance, and said that this increased amount will be spent on deferred maintenance.
Assistant Superintendent of Business Services and Operations Michael Engel said the district will be receiving an estimated $72.9 million in revenue, and will have an estimated $73.9 million in expenditures, which could potentially increase due to inflation, so the district will continue operating at a deficit throughout this year.
This year, the district will be receiving $58.5 million in revenue from local sources including property taxes and student fees, and another $11.5 million from state sources. The district will be receiving $2.6 million from federal sources, including Title 1 funding, which the school board also approved at the Aug. 16 meeting. Title 1 funding is received by schools in which 40 % of the student population or more come from low income families.
The new school year kicked off on Aug. 16 for the district, and after the passing of the referendum, no COVID-19 restrictions and the approval of a new budget at the Aug. 16 Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Daniel Woestman sees this year as a fresh start.
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“For a lot of people it feels like this is the first normal first day of school we’ve had in a few years,” Woestman said. “The passing of the referendum signifies a new chapter for the Warren story. The referendum isn’t just about putting Band-Aids on something that was broken, it’s about rethinking how we provide public education to the high school students here in the community.”