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Albany planning school referendum

ALBANY — The Albany School Board in November will ask voters for permission to exceed the district's revenue cap to cover operational expenses.

Officials are just beginning to put together information for a referendum question and don't know any figures yet, school board President Mike Marean said.

The referendum in effect would continue permission to exceed the revenue cap approved by voters in an April 2009 referendum. Back then, residents voted 472-334 to exceed the state revenue cap for a total of $1.75 million over four years, ending at the end of the upcoming school year.

The November referendum would support operations starting next summer and would run for three or four years, Marean said.

While no dollar amounts have been decided, Marean said the November referendum should be less than what the district sought in 2009.

"We're looking to keep the mill rate consistent with where we are now," he said.

The school board meets Wednesday, but action on a referendum question likely won't happen until September, he said.

This year's budget is "looking OK," he said. "We've done some different things to save money, which has definitely helped us."

That includes renegotiating the district's bus contract last year, salary freezes and teacher concessions and savings from an updated heating system, he said.

"We've been fortunate," he said. "We've had an administration and staff and board that has been proactive in looking for cost savings to help us to make sure we stay in a good situation with our budget."

When voters in 2009 granted the district permission to exceed the revenue cap for operational expenses, they also approved a second referendum question 552-258 to spend up to $2 million over 10 years to update district facilities.