The Eudora school board approved a 2018-2019 budget that lowered the mill levy and invested all the new money it received from the state in district staff, Superintendent Steve Splichal said.

The board approved the budget at an Aug. 23 meeting. The action set the district’s mill levy at 70.63 mills or 0.743 mills lower than its 2017-2018 budget. At 70.63 mills, the district’s share of taxes on a $150,000 home is $1,172.

The district did receive about $400,000 in additional state aid from the new school finance formula the Kansas Legislature approved last spring, Splichal said. That money was invested in staff, he said.

The board has ratified a new teacher contract that increases the base pay for first-year teachers to $38,250, an increase of $1,000, and provides all teachers with a $600 raise through an adjustment to the salary schedule, Splichal said. Among the board’s other investments in staff was the creation of a new social worker position and the addition of an assistant principal/athletic director position at the middle school, he said.

“The board spent more than $500,000 between new positions and everything negotiated in salaries,” he said. “We invested more than the new money we got from the state in staff.”

The district’s budget benefited from a 5.6 percent increase in its assessed valuation, Splichal said. The 21 new Eudora housing starts in 2018 increased the district’s assessed valuation to $66.88 million. The valuation increase allowed the school board to decrease the mill levy that supports the district bond-and-interest fund by 0.963 mills, he said.

“We’re very optimistic about the new home starts that are going on in the community,” he said. “It’s a long time in coming, but people are building and homes are moving.”