79-1028.01.

School fiscal years; district may exceed certain limits; situations enumerated; state board; duties.

(1) For each school fiscal year, a school district may exceed its budget authority for the general fund budget of expenditures as calculated pursuant to section 79-1023 for such school fiscal year by a specific dollar amount for the following exclusions:

(a) Expenditures for repairs to infrastructure damaged by a natural disaster which is declared a disaster emergency pursuant to the Emergency Management Act;

(b) Expenditures for judgments, except judgments or orders from the Commission of Industrial Relations, obtained against a school district which require or obligate a school district to pay such judgment, to the extent such judgment is not paid by liability insurance coverage of a school district;

(c) Expenditures pursuant to the Retirement Incentive Plan authorized in section 79-855 or the Staff Development Assistance authorized in section 79-856;

(d) Expenditures of amounts received from educational entities as defined in section 79-1201.01 for providing distance education courses through the Educational Service Unit Coordinating Council to such educational entities;

(e) Expenditures to pay for employer contributions pursuant to subsection (2) of section 79-958 to the School Employees Retirement System of the State of Nebraska to the extent that such expenditures exceed the employer contributions under such subsection that would have been made at a contribution rate of seven and thirty-five hundredths percent;

(f) Expenditures to pay for school district contributions pursuant to subdivision (1)(c)(i) or (1)(d)(i) of section 79-9,113 to the retirement system established pursuant to the Class V School Employees Retirement Act to the extent that such expenditures exceed the school district contributions under such subdivision that would have been made at a contribution rate of seven and thirty-seven hundredths percent;

(g) Expenditures for incentives agreed to be paid by a school district to certificated employees in exchange for a voluntary termination of employment occurring prior to July 1, 2009, occurring on or after the last day of the 2010-11 school year and prior to the first day of the 2013-14 school year, or, to the extent that a district demonstrates to the State Board of Education pursuant to subsection (3) of this section that the agreement will result in a net savings in salary and benefit costs to the school district over a five-year period, occurring on or after the first day of the 2013-14 school year and prior to September 1, 2017;

(h) Expenditures by a school district with budgeted expenditures otherwise equal to the budget authority for the general fund budget of expenditures for such school district as calculated pursuant to section 79-1023 for such school fiscal year for current and future qualified voluntary termination incentives for certificated teachers pursuant to subsection (3) of section 79-8,142 that are not otherwise included in an exclusion pursuant to this subsection;

(i) Expenditures by a school district with budgeted expenditures otherwise equal to the budget authority for the general fund budget of expenditures for such school district as calculated pursuant to section 79-1023 for such school fiscal year for seventy-five percent of incentives agreed to be paid to certificated employees in exchange for a voluntary termination of employment occurring between September 1, 2017, and August 31, 2018, as a result of a collective-bargaining agreement in force and effect on September 1, 2017, that are not otherwise included in an exclusion pursuant to this subsection;

(j) Expenditures by a school district with budgeted expenditures otherwise equal to the budget authority for the general fund budget of expenditures for such school district as calculated pursuant to section 79-1023 for such school fiscal year for fifty percent of incentives agreed to be paid to certificated employees in exchange for a voluntary termination of employment occurring between September 1, 2018, and August 31, 2019, as a result of a collective-bargaining agreement in force and effect on September 1, 2017, that are not otherwise included in an exclusion pursuant to this subsection;

(k) Expenditures by a school district with budgeted expenditures otherwise equal to the budget authority for the general fund budget of expenditures for such school district as calculated pursuant to section 79-1023 for such school fiscal year for twenty-five percent of incentives agreed to be paid to certificated employees in exchange for a voluntary termination of employment occurring between September 1, 2019, and August 31, 2020, as a result of a collective-bargaining agreement in force and effect on September 1, 2017, that are not otherwise included in an exclusion pursuant to this subsection;

(l) The special education budget of expenditures;

(m) Expenditures of special grant funds; and

(n) Expenditures of funds received as federal impact aid pursuant to 20 U.S.C. 7701 to 7714, as such sections existed on January 1, 2016, due to a district having land within its boundaries that is federal property classified as Indian lands under 20 U.S.C. 7713(7), as such section existed on January 1, 2016, and funds received as impact aid due to children in attendance who resided on Indian lands in accordance with 20 U.S.C. 7703(a)(1)(C), as such section existed on January 1, 2016.

(2) For each school fiscal year, a school district may exceed its budget authority for the general fund budget of expenditures as calculated pursuant to section 79-1023 for such school fiscal year by a specific dollar amount and include such dollar amount in the budget of expenditures used to calculate budget authority for the general fund budget of expenditures pursuant to section 79-1023 for future years for the following exclusions:

(a) The first school fiscal year the district will be participating in Network Nebraska for the full school fiscal year, for the difference of the estimated expenditures for such school fiscal year for telecommunications services, access to data transmission networks that transmit data to and from the school district, and the transmission of data on such networks as such expenditures are defined by the department for purposes of the distance education and telecommunications allowance minus the dollar amount of such expenditures for the second school fiscal year preceding the first full school fiscal year the district participates in Network Nebraska;

(b) Expenditures for new elementary attendance sites in the first year of operation or the first year of operation after being closed for at least one school year if such elementary attendance site will most likely qualify for the elementary site allowance in the immediately following school fiscal year as determined by the state board;

(c) For the first school fiscal year for which early childhood education membership is included in formula students for the calculation of state aid, expenditures for early childhood education equal to the amount the school district received in early childhood education grants pursuant to section 79-1103 for the prior school fiscal year, increased by the basic allowable growth rate; and

(d) For school fiscal year 2013-14, an amount not to exceed two percent over the previous school year if such increase is approved by a seventy-five percent majority vote of the school board of such district.

(3) The state board shall approve, deny, or modify the amount allowed for any exclusions to the budget authority for the general fund budget of expenditures pursuant to this section.