School Budgets can be Interesting

I included this story because of the lead. It is important to grab readers with the big picture and walk them through the rest. You might notice the fluff at the end of the piece about who was hired, or fired and what they were paid. I asked my editor how much of the agenda he wanted and he said "everything." It might not seem important to you, but it is news to someone. Write it all and allow your editor to cut the story.
Something that happened here that was amusing was how I got the quote from the board president, when he said, "we just don't know." The board went into executive session to discuss a few personnel matters and I waited for almost two hours to find out if there would be additional action or comment on the budget. After that long wait all I could get was that quote and the board went home. To this day when I run into Charlie Randall he says to me, "we just don't know."

By Alan Foster
Daily American

Think of the Rockwood school district budget as the Titanic, and the assessment appeal filed by the Seven Springs resort as the iceberg, and you will have an idea of the dilemma faced by the Rockwood school board as it adopted a tentative budget last night. The new tax rate was set at 17.89 mills.
School directors put together a 8.1 million dollar spending plan and added five per cent to allow for a unfavorable ruling on the Seven Springs appeal. If the county assessment figure holds, it will be smooth sailing. If the courts drastically cut the value of the luxury resort, district taxpayers will be fishing for more money. When asked about the chances of a favorable ruling on the appeal, Board president Charles Randall said, "We just don't know." The appeals by Seven Springs and Hidden Valley, in the Somerset school district, have been previously reported on in the Daily American.
Without the appeal scenario, the budget shows a modest increase from 7.9 million for this school year to the projected 8.1 million for next year. What this means to property owners is, if a property is valued at $100,000, bringing the assessed value to $50,000 (or 50%) times the millage rate of .01789, then the tax liability on the subject property would be $895. This according to district business manager Brian Coughenour.
These new millage rates cannot be compared to those of previous years because of the new property value figures from the countywide reassessment conducted last year. The new school budgets are the first to have the new values available. The last reassessment was done in the early 70's.
Other taxes remained the same as previous years: per capita, $5; occupation, $10; earned income, 1/2 per cent; and real estate transfer, 1/2 per cent.
The board dueled over allowing teachers to attend conferences during the school year as often as they have in the past. Board vice president Dan Cramer made a motion that the $10,000 allocated for such conferences be spent using s 75 per cent in the summer and only 25 per cent during the school term.
"We've got the keep them (the teachers) here, doing what they were hired to do," Cramer said. Board president Charles Randall said he did not feel the educational process was being hurt by the system now in place. Cramer's motion failed by a vote of 4-2. District superintendent Andy Demidont commented that even though the district allocated $10,000 for these conferences the teaching staff spent only a little over half of the funds. Cramer said money was not the issue, but the time away from the classroom.
The school directors agreed to update the district's math textbook series for all 12 grades at a cost of $45,000 and to sell outdated Apple computers for $200 per bundle.
Board member Dennis Nicklow was re-elected district treasurer.
The board accepted the resignation of Dorthea Dinning, effective June 30. Agreed to employ Nancy Thomas as a full-time employee in social studies and approved the extended year contract of John Blakley.
In a rebuff to superintendent Andy Demidont the board refused to allow for the advertisement for a high school principal for the new school year. Demidont has been serving as both superintendent and principal in the current academic year and had requested the change.
In other personnel matters the board agreed to advertise for a chemistry/physics teacher and instructional assistants, one for kindergarten and three for first grade. The hiring of these teacher aides was opposed by Doug Wheaton who felt the teachers should be able to handle the students at the present class size.
The board approved donations to the Somerset county and Rockwood libraries in the amount of $350 each and to participate in the Summer Youth Employment Training Program through Tableland, Inc.