Lexington District One school board recently passed the upcoming school year budget totaling $385.1 million with no millage increase. The 2024-25 budget has 90% of the budget designated to salaries.

The starting teacher salary has increased to $47,000 from the previous starting teacher salary of $43,910, and all eligible employees will receive a step increase plus a 3% raise. For the upcoming school year, teachers, librarians and counselors make up more than half of the total salary and fringe totaling 56.17%. School administrators make up 5.3% of salary and fringe.

The bump in teachers' salary comes from the House and Senate who passed a statewide bill, H. 5100.

The 2024-25 budget presented several unique challenges for the board. For one, the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds (ESSER) from federal funds from COVID-19 came to an end. There was also “significant reduction” in enrollment in Lexington One and a new state funding formula. This past school year saw an enrollment of 25,944, down more than 1,200 from the previous school year.

New Programs

The upcoming budget includes funds for two new programs in the elementary schools. ATLAS and Connect will support elementary students behavioral needs.

The ATLAS program provides support for pre-kindergarten through fifth grade students who demonstrate behaviors that hinder success in traditional classrooms. The Connect program will serve pre-kindergarten through fifth grade students with significant cognitive and developmental delays whose maladaptive behaviors can’t be managed in a self-contained classroom in a traditional school setting.

Students who exhibit challenging behaviors could exhibit actions such as physical aggression, frequent disruptive outbursts or shutdown and more on a regular basis. There would be a nine-to-18-week program tailored to each student along with dedicated staff.

The budget for the ATLAS program would cover about $815,000 for salary, between $36,000-40,000 for furniture, $80,000 for resources and supplies, transportation and partnerships with nurses, food service and mental health services.

The Connect program budget is broken into two phases with phase one allowing roughly more than $118,000 for program equipment and staff. Phase two would cost roughly $67,000 and be allocated in the 2025-26 school year as the Rosenwald Community Learning Center prepares for the program.

Contingency Items

A couple of items that may be added include special education contingency staffing to address needs that arise during the school year. This would amount to $375,000.

Mobile computing device repairs equating $50,000 would cover repairing or replacing devices since the district no longer charges parents a fee for technology repair and replacement.

The board will revisit the budget and amend if necessary after receiving revised revenue numbers from the state.