Northville's school board has passed its budget for the 2012-13 school year.

The budget passed last week looks very similar to what was presented to the public in the May community budget forums, said Mike Zopf, assistant superintendent of finance and operations.

Forecasted expenses will exceed revenue, creating a $1.2 million deficit. General fund revenues total $64.9 million and expenditures total about $66.1 million. Benefit costs, which are expected to increase by about $1.2 million, account for a big chunk of the expenditure changes from 2011-12 to 2012-13.

The board also approved a favorable end-of-year budget amendment for 2011-12 on Tuesday. The amendment shows a lesser hit from employee health insurance costs. This means the district paid about $1 million less than initially anticipated.

Here are some of the highlights from the passed 2012-13 budget, according to district documents:

• About $1.4 million will be spent on moving to full day kindergarten in the fall, including added staffing.
• The district will lose $80,200 on funding awarded per student for the class of about 20 who will enroll in a half-day kindergarten class.
• About $675,000 in capital expenditures are expected, mostly on the turf project for the Eight Mile stadium. About $600,000 will be paid back from the Northville Education Foundation for the project.

In order to cast a budget projection, the district has to make a few assumptions about expenditures.

The budget assumes the following about state aid:

• Enrollment will not increase or decrease from this year, thus affecting the amount awarded per student.
• All students, except those in the half-day kindergarten program, will earn the district $8,019 per student.
• That the district will receive $52 per pupil for meeting best practices stipulated by the state.
• That the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System (MPSERS) cost offset will amount to $127 per student.