Iowa City school board approves budget

IOWA CITY - The Iowa City Community School District's board approved the district's 2016-2017 budget Tuesday with an all-in-favor vote.

The budget of $273 million dropped from $292 million this year.

The board declined to hear public appeals that were filed with the district in regard to its January decision to eliminate some of the district's free busing programs to families. The action will save a half-million dollars.

'This comes down to money. We are simply underfunded from the state level, and it is a challenge for us,” said Chris Lynch, board president.

The cuts come were made as a result of Gov. Terry Branstad approving a 2.25 percent increase in state aid for K-12 education earlier this month. The increase was less than what districts were hoping for.

Lynch said ending discretionary busing will help Iowa City schools prevent significant staff cuts that other districts face.

'When you are dealing with 2.25 percent of supplemental state aid, and our inflation is in the lower 3 percent, that means we are just a percent off,” he said and referenced the districts $100 million general fund. 'One percent of 100 million is a million, so if we can save half a million dollars in discretionary busing - it needs to support the classroom. Anyway you look at this, we will have more teachers in the classroom because of this decision.”

According to a report compiled by the district, it will use the savings to reinvest toward reading and math proficiency.

The board also passed another year of a pay-to-ride student transportation system that would allow families to pay for children to be picked up by the busing system at an already established bus stop at a fixed rate.