CHERRY TWP — The Moniteau School Board Monday night passed a 2017-18 preliminary budget of $21.26 million by a vote of 5-3.

The current budget is $21.53 million.

The proposed budget includes a property tax increase of 2.39 mills. The current tax rate is 87.62 mills. The proposed tax rate would be 90.01 mills.

A mill generates $1 for each $1,000 of a property's assessed value.

John D'Amore, district business manager, said the proposed tax increase would increase annual real estate taxes $37.89 for the average homeowner in the district.

The proposed budget does not use money from the fund balance for ongoing operating expenses. However, the preliminary budget does use $100,000 from the fund balance for nonannually-recurring expenses. It also uses $100,000 to maintain a budgetary reserve for potential unanticipated required expenses.

The fund balance is about $5.2 million.

The preliminary budget reflects an increase of $643,519 in staffing costs including benefit and retirement costs. This is 3 percent of the proposed budget.

Board members Eric Anderson, Linda Dillaman, Trixie Heck, Diane Hunter and Kathy McBride voted for the budget. Randy Armagost, Cecil Blauser and Michael Panza voted against it. Member JoAnn Duke was unable to attend the meeting.

The board will vote June 26 on the final budget.

“It is pretty much a status quo budget,” D'Amore said.

He said state funds account for about 66 percent of the district's revenue.

About 4.2 percent of the district budget is discretionary. Another 68.5 percent is for costs related to staffing and 27.3 percent is for fixed costs, according to D'Amore.

Superintendent Sean Arney said, “We've been working on this for the past month. We expect additional modifications and refinement.”

In other business, the board raised the prices of school lunches for the 2017-18 school year.

Lunch prices at Dassa McKinney Elementary School will increase by 10 cents to $2.10 and lunches at Moniteau High School will increase by 10 cents to $2.30 per paid lunch.

The price changes were calculated according to a formula in federal regulations for school lunch programs.

“It is not our decision,” said Panza. “We are required by federal law to do this.”