Apr. 10—OSKALOOSA — Oskaloosa Community Schools has voted to publish its 2024-25 budget, which will give the district $42.4 million to meet its needs.
On Tuesday evening, the Board of Education voted unanimously to approve the publication. Under the budget, the levy will come in at $13.50 per $1,000 in property tax. According to Oskaloosa CSD Finance Director Sarah McGriff, the state supplementary assistance has been set at 2.5%. With that funding, McGriff explained that they will be able to drop the levy by five cents from the previous proposal.
"If you will remember, at $13.55, the taxpayer was still paying less than they did last year — it was a decrease of 11.3 percent — now the tax rate will lower further to $13.50, so they did last year," she said.
The savings, McGriff said, came off of a rollback in property taxes, changing the rate by 11.58%
A public hearing on the budget is set for April 24 at 5:30 p.m.
In other news: — Oskaloosa CSD approved of the purchase of 230 new MacBooks for staff and substitutes for an estimated cost of $320,852. — The Board approved a of a new office procedures manual. — The Oskaloosa Virtual Academy was transferred from its status as a stand-alone school to a program for students grades 7-12. — The Board voted in favor of the release the retainage for the high school baseball field improvements project in the amount of $62,610.87 to Iowa Sports Turf after 30 days.
Donald Promnitz is the associate editor of the Ottumwa Courier and the Oskaloosa Herald. He can be reached at dpromnitz@ottumwacourier.com. Follow him on Twitter @DonPromnitz.