The Lindbergh Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday night to adopt a revised budget for the 2017-2018 school year that projects a surplus of nearly $43,000.
The revised budget projects revenues of $72,141,226 with anticipated expenditures totaling $72,098,377 — a surplus of $42,849.

Look for complete coverage in the Dec. 28 print edition of the Call. Below is the story from the Call’s Dec. 14 print edition.

By Mike Anthony
Executive Editor
news1@callnewspapers.com

Approval of a revised budget for the 2017-2018 school year that projects an operating surplus of nearly $43,000 was scheduled to be considered earlier this week by the Lindbergh Board of Education.

The school board was set to meet Tuesday night — after the Call went to press.

The original operating budget approved by the school board in June projected a surplus of nearly $24,000. The proposed revised operating budget projects that surplus would increase by $19,130. As proposed, the revised budget projects revenues of $72,141,226 with anticipated expenditures totaling $72,098,377 — a surplus of $42,849.

The original 2017-2018 operating budget forecast expenditures of $71,877,648 with projected revenues of $71,901,367 — a surplus of $23,719.

The original budget was presented to the board in June by Chief Financial Officer Charles Triplett, whose retirement was effective June 30. Triplett, who had served as CFO since 2012, was succeeded by Chief Financial Officer Joël Cracchiolo, effective July 1.

In a memo to Superintendent Jim Simpson, Cracchiolo noted that revenue for the current school year increased by $239,859, while expenditures increased by $220,729.

“These revisions are less than 1 percent of the total amount originally budgeted,” she wrote. “The majority of the increase in revenue and expense is for grants or self-supporting programs for which data was not available in early June …”

General operating funds such as state aid, transportation and sales tax are up $91,530 — 0.13 percent of the total operating revenue budget, according to Cracchiolo.

“Although we are still optimistic about the current tax revenue budget, we are keeping an eye on the high number of protested tax cases,” she wrote.

While the district’s total assessed valuation of real estate and personal property increased 9.66 percent, the state’s Hancock Amendment limited the district’s revenue growth to the rate of inflation — 2.1 percent — requiring the district to roll back its tax rate.

“Data gathered from the St. Louis County website indicate a high number of protests,” Cracchiolo wrote in the memo. “St. Louis County requires taxpayers to make payment of the total tax bill while protests (are) reviewed by the Missouri State Tax Commission.”

If protests extend beyond Dec. 31, which Cracchiolo believes is likely, Lindbergh may receive the tax revenue, but will have to return it to St. Louis County for protests that are upheld by the commission once a settlement is reached.