Whitehall school budget approved, deficit projected

The budget approved at the annual meeting of the Whitehall School District shows a deficit, but the expectation is that the actual expenditures will come out lower than projected.

District Superintendent Mike Beighley reminded those attending last Wednesday’s annual meeting that the revenues shown on the budget are projections being made conservatively. However, because the school went to a self-funded insurance model, it had to list the highest possible amount the district could spend on insurance. The end result, showed a deficit of about $235,000 on the budget.

“It’s not something to be extremely upset about, but at the same time, I will prepare you for the fact that we may well see a deficit at the end of the year,” Beighley said.

Another factor was the increase in costs for special education. The district is expected to spend $1,080,801 on special education this year, about a $200,000 increase from last year. 

“There’s your deficit,” Beighley said. “Special education services we have very little control over. They are required by law and we are required to provide them.”

The total budget approved showed expenditures at $11,920,929 and revenue at $11,686,159. 

The board approved a tax levy of $3,254,912 with a tax rate of $7.55 per $1,000 in property valuation. The rate is about a $1 increase from last year and the levy is up approximately $700,000 from a year ago, Beighley noted the increase is because the school didn’t receive a significant increase in state aid.

“That is directly opposite of the previous year which we saw a dramatic decrease in our overall total tax levy because we got a significant aid increase,” Beighley said.

While higher than last year’s, the tax rate is still the second-lowest in the past 10 years. Though, Beighley cautioned that doesn’t necessarily mean all taxpayers will pay less than they have previously.

The superintendent specifically noted the increase in property valuation in the town of Northfield, which went from approximately $57 million to $72.3 million. As a result, Northfield residents will pay a total of $545,836 in taxes, compared to $371,723 last year. 

“They will see a significant bump in their school portion (of their taxes),” Beighley said. “That is independent of anything that the district does. That is based purely on property values.”

All of the municipalities in the district will see an increase in the tax levy from last year, though the total levies for the cities of Blair and Whitehall and town of Lincoln will be less than what was paid for the 2021-22 school year. Whitehall’s portion of the taxes went from 27.2 percent in 2021-22 to 24.4 percent in 2023-24. 

Beighley said the district shouldn’t get credit or blame for the rates.

“Those are based purely on the levy versus property value,” Beighley said. “I caution any comparison on tax rates because we don’t control the values… we should never own it going down, nor should we own it going up.” 

In the future, Beighley said, the district may begin using an additional levy to help fund community events that are held at the school. He said he has never used the fund before, but the school building is being used more now than ever before. 

“Given the number of events on evenings and weekends we are spending here with custodial time, maintenance and all of those things, the community service fund may be something we deploy next year,” Beighley said.

Beighley said the district will begin tracking those expenses to determine if such a fund is necessary and how much money would be needed. Board member Jonathan Sygulla noted that events had previously been held in the Whitehall community center, but that was torn down several years ago. Since then, the school building has been the only space to hold several community events. 

“In my opinion, it is part of our community responsibility to provide that space and that’s what we do,” Beighley said. “We are the only entity in town that has the ability to host those and we do.” 

Following the conclusion of the budget hearing and annual meeting, the board held its regular October meeting. Action items during the meeting were primarily limited to topics discussed in the previous meetings, including officially adopting the tax levy. 

Beighley told the board that he has done an extensive amount of research in terms of what kind of impact artificial intelligence (AI) can have on education. While he doesn’t expect the impact to be immediate, he projected there will be an impact in the 2025-26 school year. 

He said using AI has “tremendous potential” but “It will never replace humans. Education is a human gig.”

School principal Damon Lisowski said some employees are anxious about using AI. 

“I think the scary things are the unknowns,” Lisowski said. “The known parts are very helpful, I think the unknowns are scary.”