At its last meeting in June, the Oxford Community School Board accepted a resolution for the 2023-2024 school year budget. Next year’s proposed budget is $103,072,329, about a 3.5 percent increase over the final amended budget from the 2022-2023 fiscal year.

Assistant Superintendent for Business & Maintenance Sam Barna presented the proposed general fund budget at the June 27 board meeting. According to his numbers, the bulk of the district’s revenue will come from the State of Michigan, $84,110,755. The district is slated to receive $6,46,548 from the federal government and another $6,410,610 from “local revenue.” Just over $6 million will come from “other” sources.

“As I looked over the budget, Sam,” School board president Dan D’Alessandro said. “And I recall the number $103,072,329. It is a far cry from the $62 million budget we had just 11 years ago. I think it is a testament to the growth of this district and the hard work of our staff and administrators.”

In Barna’s budget, the district’s revenues and expenditures zero out – both at $103,072,329. The bulk of the expenditures, 49 percent, will pay for basic program instruction. That projected cost is $50,531,478. In 2022-2023 the district expenditure for basic instruction was $48,615,763. A little over $9 million will be spent for “added needs” for pupil instruction. The next largest expenditure was for operations and maintenance, which makes up 11.4 percent of the budget, $11,704,444. For pupil support services the projected cost is $8,535,126. For school administration the budget expenditure is $6,004,103.

The budget resolution accepted by the board showed the district will have a General Fund Surplus of $13,894,661 – 13.5 percent of the total budget. — D. Rush