Friday, September 7, 2012

School Board To Consider Emergency Levy


REGULAR SCHOOL BOARD MEETING
GARDEN VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT #71
Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012
6:00 PM – Flex Room

The mission of the Garden Valley School District is to provide educational excellence, allowing students to succeed in an ever-changing, technological world.
*** Welcome and Greeting ***
6:00 p.m. – Meeting begins
1.Call to Order 
2. Roll Call
3. Pledge of Allegiance
4. Approve and Adopt Agenda
5. Comments from the Board
A. Chair - Reminder that the October regular meeting is to be held in Lowman
B. Members
6. Consent Agenda
A. Approval of Minutes – Regular meeting Aug. 14, 2012
and Special Meeting Aug. 29, 2012
B. Treasurer’s Report
C. Payment of Bills and Journal Entries
D. Approve supplemental contracts
E. Approve in lieu of transportation payments
7. Delegations and Reports
A. Regularly Scheduled Delegations          
1. Facilities, Maintenance, and Grounds
2. Athletic Director
3. PTO
B. Superintendent’s Report – Mr. Schrader
8. Community Forum [Speakers are limited to three minutes each, and may not make open session comments critical of students, minor children or employees of the district]
9. Action Items
A. Old Business
1.  Discussion of District Policies.  Consideration of motions to follow.
2.  Discussion of Trustee attendance for ISBA Convention on November 14 - 16 in Boise.
3.  Approve graduation date.
 B. New Business
1. Interview applicant(s) for Zone 3 Trustee vacancy and consideration of motion for appointment for remainder of term (2015).
2. Emergency School Levy.
12. Executive Session
A. Executive session is planned to:
To communicate with legal counsel for the public agency to discuss the legal ramifications of and legal options for pending litigation, or controversies not yet being litigated but imminently likely to be litigated. [IC 67-2345(1)(f)]
13. Adjourn
 THE BOARD RESERVES THE RIGHT TO CHANGE THE AGENDA PRIOR TO OR AT THE MEETING                                                            
 
 

 
                                                     

 

8 comments:

  1. "2. Emergency School Levy."

    Oh, no. Here we go again. Time to try to pick the public's pocket. They approved a budget...now live within it like the rest of us have to live within ours!

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  2. 2:12 - Actually an Emergency Levy is something the state has put into place under a very specific set of circumstances. Districts rarely meet those requirements to even discuss the matter. In this case, the discussion is being prompted by the fact that enrollment increased by 30 more children this Fall. The district cannot turn them away or decide to offer a "lesser" education than the state requires. Several optional programs have already been cut and "pay to play" has already been instituted. The budget was approved with the numbers they had.

    I don't know if the discussion will go anywhere but I agree they have to have it. After all, you may need some help yourself with your budget if you suddenly had 30 more mouths to feed with state regulations on how you were to feed them.

    Before we get too wound up about this, how about we learn about what's behind it.

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  3. I thought the state paid school districts based upon the numbers of students that attend each day. If enrollment is up 30, then the district should be rolling in money.

    Since when does gaining 30 new customers cause you to raise your rates? I smell Alan Ward in this. He is a serial tax raiser.

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  4. Actually even Alan Ward can't go to the legislature, get them to draft a law on the "qt" just for Garden Valley so he can pull strings and raise your taxes. You really ought to make a call, do some research. There is a gap between enrollment and when the money comes in. Again, this is only available under some very strict guidelines. I'm sure Ward didn't go recruit 30 more kids to create this situation. Geez.

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  5. Yes, and there is a gap between the vote and when the levy money would come in and be able to be used. It's not 1+1=2. Most of those 30 kids will disappear before January. Take a look at previous year enrollments. Always up in September, but by the end of the year the increases disappear.

    When Vic Koshuta was superintendent, he kept a cushion in the budget so that things like this wouldn't require going out for a levy. Stan Kress wiped out that cushion because he believed in levies as the way to run a district.

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  6. Yes, I remember. Koshuta hid money, Kress pissed it away, and Tomlin balanced the budget. All three are gone.

    Schraider is clearly in over his head and no competence on the board to help.

    If they try a levy we'll vote no.

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  7. 8:29 - you could try to vote no but you won't get the chance.

    Tomlin misreported what we actually had and what was needed - a complete mess.

    There is the money from the sale of the school which I personally think we should use before levying. Ya, I remember the meetings where old board members promised to use the sale of the old school to pay down the levy and that's what I wanted to happen. Then I find out that the board chair at the time of the bond signed the bonding instruments with the NO PREPAYMENT option. Nice!

    On top of that, they said sure we'll sell the school to repay the bond and then didn't sell it. They just let it fall further into disrepair losing value on the way. By the way a former board or superintendent can't promise to do something, then do nothing to keep the promise and then expect a future board or superintendent to keep their promise. Yet a few want to rake this board over the coals for sins of previous boards. Why not ask some of the previous chairs what the heck they were doing?

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  8. It's not all Shrader's fault. He has a tax and spend liberal board chair who only see's one solution - continue to bully the taxpayers until we pony up.

    Just say NO.

    ReplyDelete