The DeKalb County Board of Education will request a property tax rate increase of seventeen cents to help fund the projected 2011-2012 school budget.The board adopted the proposed tentative general purpose and food service budgets during the regular monthly meeting, held Thursday night at the DCHS cafeteria.The $20.146 million general purpose budget is mostly state funded, but to balance the proposed budget, a total of $666,893 is needed from the Education Jobs Fund, which is federal one time monies; an appropriation of $658,016 from the school system's allocation of Basic Education Program (BEP) reserves for equipment and capital outlay expenditures; and a seventeen cent increase in the local property tax rate.If approved by the county commission, the local tax rate for schools would increase from 48 cents to 65 cents per $100 of assessed value.One penny of the tax rate is estimated to generate $44,323.Some of the additional funds needed for the new budget would go to cover the cost of a 3.2 percent pay raise for certified and support staff, five new teacher positions, one Northside Elementary School fifth-grade teacher, one Northside Elementary School physical education teacher, one DCHS math teacher, one county-wide instruction coach teacher, one assistant band teacher, two new assistant soccer coach positions, one new support staff position-DCHS site coordinator, one new teacher position-DCHS special education teacher, three teacher positions which have been funded from federal stimulus money to be returned to the local general purpose fund now that the federal funds have been exhausted, one educational assistant position which has been funded from federal money to be returned to the local general purpose budget, three new assistant principal positions with benefits, including one at DeKalb West, one at Northside Elementary, and one at Smithville Elementary.The proposed new budget also includes the following increases:Textbook adoption (Math)- $40,000.Updated hardware/software Accounting Department- $40,000.Minimal increase in utility costs- $6,000.Increase in maintenance of plant supplies- $23,000.Increase in fuel costs- $124,000.Increase in capital outlay- $200,000 (for DCHS science lab upgrades).The spending plan will be presented to the budget committee of the county commission and if it meets with approval there, then it will go before the entire county commission in August for final approval. If the committee does not approve, then the proposed new school budget could be subject to some revisions by the board of education.