With a lot of preparation, but little discussion, the St. Helena Unified School District trustees have unanimously approved a $19.05 million General Fund budget.

Catrina Howatt, the district’s chief business official, said 83 percent of the district’s expenditures are for people, including salaries and benefits.

In making up the 2007-08 budget and budgets in the years following, Howatt said she used a number of assumptions. They include:

• The district’s enrollment will continue to decline gradually;

• Revenue from the state, which is based on Average Daily Attendance, also will decline;

• Property taxes are projected to increase 3.5 percent for 2007-08 and 3 percent in both the 2008-09 and 2009-10 fiscal years;

• No one-time expenditures are in any of the three budgets;

• Health benefits are expected to increase in 2008-09 and 2009-10. Also in those fiscal years, the budget projections do not include any salary adjustment settlements.

Howatt added the district’s budget is made up of nine funds and the largest is the General Fund, which at $19.05 million makes up 85 percent of annual expenditures.

As approved, the district’s 2007-08 General Fund budget calls for spending $8.9 million on salaries for certificated employees, $3.2 million on classified salaries and $3.6 million on employee benefits. The budget calls for spending $2.5 million on services and other operating expenses, $115,000 in miscellaneous outgoing expenses and $538,110 for books and supplies.

On the revenue side, 83 percent, or $16.2 million, comes from property taxes. State revenue accounts for $1.65 million, local revenue is $1.1 million and federal revenue accounts for $579,000. Total revenues are expected to be $19.56 million.

Other funds include Adult Education ($20,740); Cafeteria Fund ($472,622); Deferred Maintenance, with $108,021 transferred to the General Fund and an ending balance of $246,854; Required Reserves, with an ending balance of $1.05 million, which is more than the 5 percent required by the board; Retiree Benefit Fund, with an ending balance of $184,335; Building Fund ($215,379); Capital Facilities, with an ending balance of $244,656; and Capital Outlay Fund with $2.7 million in expenses and an ending balance of $211,838.

In other financial matters, the board held a public hearing and then unanimously approved a three-year contract with the St. Helena Teachers Association. The collective bargaining agreement calls for a 3-percent raise for certificated employees in the 2007-08 fiscal year, plus an additional amount if there are larger-than-expected property tax receipts.

In the current fiscal year, the district spent $8.97 million on total compensation for teachers. The new agreement calls for the district spending an additional $394,757 for the teachers’ total compensation in the first year; an additional $581,503 in the second year and $777,745 more in the third year.

The tentative agreement, reached June 7, bases salary increases on the expected and actual property tax revenues received by the district. Before the board approval, Rob Haley, the district’s director of curriculum and instruction, said the district “has an outstanding group of teachers, who do an excellent job, and their compensation should reflect it.”

Also during its June 21 meeting, the district approved a 3 percent hike in salary for administrative, management and confidential employees; approved 25-cent and 50-cent raises for student’s meals for breakfast and lunch, while hiking adult meals $1 in the cafeteria; approved a shift in personnel to create a second school-wide maintenance person for technology; and heard updates on the district’s performing arts theater and football and track field projects.