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The USD 204 Bonner Springs-Edwardsville Board of Education unanimously approved Monday night a 2010-2011 budget that includes a decrease to the mill levy of .131 mills.

A mill is $1 in taxes for every $1,000 in assessed valuation.

The mill levy will be set at 65.372 this year, down from last year’s 65.503.

“It wasn’t easy,” business and finance manager Tami Koppang said after the meeting.

She said one major factor allowing the decrease occurred earlier this year when the district refinanced a portion of bonds taken out in 2000. This freed up funds that also allowed the district to, as she said, “maximize” the local option budget, which is a supplemental budget to the general fund.

“We didn’t have to ask for as much in the bond fund, (so we could) ask for the maximum in the LOB and still lower the (mill levy),” Koppang said.

Still the coming budget year won’t be without its struggles. Superintendent Robert Van Maren said the district was facing a decrease in enrollment of 25 students, which will have an impact on the district’s state funding. This in turn, he said, may have an effect on salary raises for district teachers and staff.

Included on the evening’s agenda were recommendations for classified and administrative contracts, where salary increases for several staff members, including Bonner Springs Elementary School principal Kim Mitchell and Clark Middle School principal Steve Cook, were to be considered. But Van Maren recommended, instead, the board table the item until the first meeting after Sept. 20, when the district must turn in its official enrollment count to the state. He said this would give the board a better idea of where it stood financially and whether it could realistically hand out any raises this year.

The board unanimously accepted Van Maren’s recommendation.

Despite holding off on approving any raises, the board gave unanimous approval for the hiring of a new kindergarten teacher at BSE and a new Bonner Springs High School freshman soccer coach. Van Maren said the new kindergarten teacher was needed because the three kindergarten classes at BSE were above the recommended 19-24 students to a class.

“We always have to meet the needs of the students and kindergarten’s an important grade level,” Van Maren said.

Athletics director John Hilton, who was also at the meeting, said another soccer coach was needed because there were 48 students signed up to take soccer this year. Currently there are two soccer coaches at BSHS, but without a third coach, Hilton said, 20 students would have to be cut from taking part in the sport.

In defense of hiring two new staff members after a string of layoffs the last two school years, Van Maren said the district would “find ways to save money,” but the focus had to be on what was best for the students.

“Maybe somehow, somewhere in the next two years, we’ll see some more money,” he said.

Fund expenditures under the approved 2010-2011 spending plan total $27,635,517, which includes $14,412,308 in general fund expenditures and $4,709,795 in LOB fund expenditures.

Koppang said an abbreviated version of the budget would be posted to the district website, usd204.com, in the coming weeks.

Also on Monday, the board:

• Unanimously approved the adoption of the agenda.

• Unanimously approved the minutes from the Aug. 2 meeting.

• Unanimously approved the treasurer and clerk’s report.

• Unanimously approved warrants totaling $220,974.03.

• Unanimously approved the rescheduling of the Sept. 7 board meeting to Sept. 13.

• Opened a public budget hearing at 7:30 p.m., during which no comments were made. The meeting was closed and the 2010-2011 budget was unanimously approved with no discussion.

• Entered into a 45-minute executive session to discuss matters related to negotiations and non-elected personnel, following which no action was taken.

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