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Batavia school budget forecasts spending 2.7 percent more

The Batavia school district has plans to spend about $87.68 million in fiscal year 2015-16, about 2.7 percent more than was budgeted for the previous year.

Of that, $9.8 million will be used to repay debt, according to the document presented to the school board Tuesday.

The tentative budget assumes the district will receive an increase in property taxes of less than 1 percent.

Overall, the district expects to receive $72.7 million in property taxes.

The largest expense in the budget is salaries, at $44.5 million.

The fiscal year began July 1. It will vote on the budget Sept. 22. The district has until Sept. 30 to adopt a budget.

During a public hearing on the budget, resident Sylvia Keppel criticized the document for not providing more information, including an increase in the amount to be paid for sponsors for clubs and other extracurricular activities in the "extra/overtime pay" portion of a budget summary document. She said the document should contain footnotes with explanations, and urged the board not to vote on it until changes were explained.

Chief financial officer Anton Inglese said some of the differences are likely due to expenses being reassigned to different line items. In that "extra/overtime pay" category, for example, the line for "licensed/extra-duty" pay decreased almost as much as the clubs pay increased.

Inglese, formerly the chief information officer, was put in charge of finances in July after the assistant superintendent for business resigned to take a job as superintendent of Minooka schools.

The document is available at the district's headquarters, and at bps101.net/bps101-annual-budgets/.

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