Public school districts across Iowa are working with their respective school boards to determine what next year’s budget will look like.

One item that is still in flux is the Supplemental State Aid (SSA), which is the funding that the Iowa Legislature gives to school districts to use within their budgets. The Legislature has a self-imposed deadline of 30 days from when the session begins to hammer out the following year’s SSA rate, which it hasn’t done yet. 

Greene County School District Superintendent Brett Abbotts says this number is important, not only for determining their overall budget, but for a new established deadline that school districts have to adhere to.

“One of the things that has changed this year is that we have to have a proposed property tax statement completed and sent to our county auditor, that has to be done by March 15th. So that we can have our first public hearing regarding our budget.” 

Abbotts points out the budget tentatively has 2.5 percent SSA as what Governor Kim Reynolds proposed at the beginning of the legislative session. He adds another public hearing will be scheduled for the overall budget, which must be submitted to the state by April 30th.