BROOKINGS — The Brookings School Board got its first look at next year’s budget during Monday night’s meeting. The proposed 2024-25 budget totals $74.6 million. The board also re-organized — electing Teresa Binkley as president and Debra Debates at vice president.

“Capital projects were at about 17% — compared to 50% last year,” Stacey VanBeek, director of business services, said. “That was about half of our budget last year with the capital projects, but we’re down to about $12.5 million left on the new schools. So we’re down to 17% left to pay out on that.”

The district is constructing new buildings at Hillcrest and Medary elementary schools. Last year, the board set a maximum price for the work at $65 million. According to this year’s proposed budget, the Hillcrest/Medary work comes in at just over $60 million — bond issuance of $32.43 million, capital outlay certificate issuance of $25 million, and a capital outlay transfer of $2.6 million. Demolition began at the old Medary building on May 22 and at the old Hillcrest building on June 5. Construction on both new buildings is underway.

“As someone who can look out my window and see the construction going on at Hillcrest, I am so impressed by how much effort they’re putting into having our schools ready by the start of school,” Debates said. “They were there this past Saturday when it was miserably hot and humid. And they work long hours. And again, just a shout out to them and their effort to keep us on track.”

The district hopes to have teachers move into the new buildings sometime in mid-to-late August. Students report to school on Sept. 3.

This year’s proposed capital outlay budget is more than $9.4 million — including the capital project transfer for Hillcrest/Medary. More than $1.1 million in capital outlay funds are available for other building improvements.

“Our (general fund) budget is very similar to last year. This year, it’ll be just over $29 million. Right now, the use of fund balance — my best guess — is about $458,000. It’s very similar to last year’s,” VanBeek said.

For 2024 taxes payable in 2025, the tax levies per thousand are $1.197 for ag, $2.679 for owner-occupied, and $5.544 for non-agricultural and utilities. State aid per student this year stands at $7,405.20 — compared with $7,120.38 last year. VanBeek said this year’s budget is based on enrollment of 3,456 — but early estimates suggest that number is continuing to grow, which could mean more state aid.

“If we were to have 44 extra students come Sept. 27 — that’s the count date, Sept. 27, last Friday in September — that’s about $326,000. So we’ll see where we end up number-wise, but that could be a huge bump,” VanBeek said. “There’s also potential for people to move away, but it’s looking good so far.”

VanBeek said insurance costs for the district have gone up.

“Last year we paid about $440,000. This year it’s over $800,000 to be insured. So we’ll continue to work on that, if we can avoid claims and such, I think they’ll work with us,” VanBeek said. “It’s hard to get them to come back down once we’re where we’re at, but I’m just hoping we can avoid increases.”

The insurance is on a one-year contract, and VanBeek told the board they will continue to explore other options for the future.

The budget contains $326,125 in enterprise funding for a new preschool program. The district is partnering with the Boys & Girls Club and the Brookings Economic Development Corp. to establish a child care collaborative to provide preschool services.

“Tuition will cover our teachers. So, we’re in charge of paying the teachers, and we’ll collect the tuition — so that’ll off-set — so budget-wise, we’re good there,” VanBeek said. “The collaborative will pay for the director this year, so that is included in this total. But it’s probably not going to be all the money that’s in and out of the district. And we also talked about how — if a family is on childcare assistance — then I will work with the state to learn how I need to claim that, so that they can attend our program successfully and, you know, not have to worry about that.”

Funding through the Elementary and Secondary School Relief (ESSER) program is ending this fall. ESSER was part of the federal government’s COVID stimulus and provided emergency funding to K-12 schools. The preliminary capital outlay budget for Brookings includes a final $135,500 in ESSER funds for a special education bus. This year’s proposed special education budget itself sits at more than $9.6 million.

“Our ESSER money has ended. And so we’ll wrap that up, and that’s the biggest part of why our budget is about the same as last year — because we don’t have ESSER funding, so that kind of off-set our state aid increase,” Van Beek said.

The district is paying bond redemption on three projects — Dakota Prairie Elementary, Camelot Intermediate, and Hillcrest/Medary. The Dakota Prairie bond redemption is 2% of this year’s budget and should be paid-off in July 2034. The Camelot bond redemption is 0.1% of the budget and should be paid-off in July 2027. The Hillcrest/Medary bond redemption is 3% of the budget and should be paid-off in August 2042.

The proposed 2024-25 budget is preliminary. The board will vote on possible adoption at their August meeting.

Email Jay Roe at jroe@brookingsregister.com.