The Friends of King School Board released its budget for the 2012-13 school year at Martin Luther King Science and Technology Charter.   It also released a budget for Joseph A. Craig Elementary, which the board will begin running in the coming year.

Based on an anticipated enrollment of 685 students, the school expects to receive about $7.85 million in revenue, of which about $6 million will be per-student state and local funding. About $2 million will be federal funding.

The budget for employee salaries has grown to $4.6 million, compared to last year’s $4.2 million, and amounts to 60 percent of the budget. It includes a $25,000 raise for school leader Doris Hicks, bringing her salary to $150,000. The budget for teacher salaries is $2.75 million with another $550,000 for therapists, specialists, and counselors.

The budget reflects a $240,000 reduction in the allocation for employee health and retirement benefits, but that’s an accounting adjustment, not an actual cut in benefits.  The changes reflect the fact that the school last year budgeted more for those benefits than it wound up spending. (The school’s plan to leave the Teacher’s Retirement System of Louisiana may, in effect, lower the retirement benefits for some teachers.  However, the State has not yet approved the school’s move to a private 403(b) retirement plan, so those changes have not gone into effect.)
 Otherwise, most spending categories are in rough alignment with last year’s budget.

The Joseph A. Craig school budget anticipates revenues of about $3.7 million, over $3 million of it from state and local per student funding, with the rest divided between food services and federal Title 1funding.  Over 65 percent of revenues ($2.45 million) is budgeted for teacher salaries, and more than 16.8 percent for employee benefits.  These figures are based on an expected student count of 399 at the K-8 school.

Current budgets are based on expected student counts, which can rise or fall throughout the year.  Schools are paid after the year is over, based upon attendance.  That leaves many budget numbers subject to change throughout the school year.