The General Fund budget for School Year 2016-17 for the Latta School District is balanced and approved by the Latta School Board of Trustees and the Dillon County Board of Trustees in the amount of $10,394,054. The budget was based on the state of SC projected per student allocation of $2350 even though state law says we should be budgeted almost $550 more per student. That reduction amounts to almost another $1,000,000 that the state is not funding the Latta School District for next year that was reasoned to be needed to be spent on other statewide needs.
The state is giving the teachers a raise of 2% for next year which is their first raise in almost 5 years. However, the state is also requiring teachers to pay more for a weakening retirement system that will negate the 2% raise. The beginning salary for a first year teacher is $30,113 which is one of the lowest in the nation and is failing to attract new teachers into education careers, particularly after they have accumulated large college debts that they have to pay off. And the state did provide additional funding for bus driver salaries.
The Latta budget also includes slightly more funding from the federal level, local revenue with a slight increase of less than 1/2 mil as required by the state inflation factor, using $128,500 of reserve funds to pay for technology and playground “lease to own” payments for the new elementary school of which construction funds were not available and supply and equipment funding to continue to improve STEM, Montessori and International Baccalaureate programs. And the budget contains continued funding for school crossing guards, SRO salaries, student and athletic insurance and no instructional fees charged to any students.
The impending equity lawsuit settlement with the state resulted in no additional funding for teacher salaries, student needs, improvement of programs or construction monies. The state did provide a one time funding to the district of $60,000 for this school year only to be used to recruit and retain teachers.
