AV-W school board approves 2024-25 budget and tax levy

The Arbor Vitae-Woodruff (AV-W) school district’s board of education Monday approved the district’s mill levy and budget for the 2024-25 school year.

Following the budget hearing in the school board’s meeting room with no attendance from the general public with the exception of a district employee and The Lakeland Times, the district’s 2024-25 budget of $11,093,483.74 was approved as was a property tax levy of $5,753,302.

While the overall budget shows an increase of just over $617,400 more than the 2023-24 district budget, the property tax levy — how things directly effect the taxpayer — is nearly $570,000 less than what was approved a year ago. 

District administrator Dr. Jocelyn Hardy, in giving a brief overview of the budget as proposed, told the school board many of the expenses are in the building and grounds area of the budget. 

“Then, there are things that are on a rotating, annual basis, like $50,000 for new Chromebooks,” she said. “Those are always big expenses. We did some textbook upgrades that haven’t been done since like ... the late 90s. Just things like that in one fell swoop, can be $50,000.”

“The overall tax levy is decreasing by 8.99 percent which was expected as we ... made the adjustment last year,” school board president Judy Nelson said, a reference to $496,000 the district had to repay because of an error at the state level in what Nelson said was “the inaccurate enrollment count the year before.”

“I’m happy to say that while we told property owners that we anticipated there would be a decrease in the levy this year, there is,” she said. 

“Yes,” Hardy agreed. “Absolutely.”

Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].