Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
AKRON -ÊA contract, taxes and the 2000 budget.
Tippecanoe Valley School Corp. discussed all these topics at its special meeting Monday.
The contract discussed was between KC Online of Winona Lake and the school corporation. At the previous school board meeting, the board voted to accept $11,000 from KC Online to defray the cost of building four 96-foot towers. In return, KC Online has a 10-year contract to set up an antenna on one of the towers so that KC Online can provide Internet access to the area. A provision in the contract allows the board to withdraw from the contract after every 180 days if they change their minds.
The four towers are being built to link all the schools to the Internet.
Not everyone was happy with the school board's decision.
Dick Radle, a local taxpayer and account manager at Sprint, said he is concerned about the Internet competition in the area and if the students and school corporation are being served well.
Mike Yazel, owner of MEDT.com, Mentone, said, "I'm here obviously because I don't like my tax dollars going to a competition." He said he faxed a copy of the contract to the state auditor's office, and though he hasn't heard anything back, he said the auditor told him he thought the contract was odd.
Yazel also questioned how quickly and easily the school board signed the contract.
Superintendent Dr. Karen Boling questioned Yazel's objections. She said, "I guess I am just puzzled right now as to what we've done that's so bad to the taxpayers."
Brad Hagg, director of technology, said school corporation attorneys are reviewing the contract with outside attorneys. He asked the board not to make any decisions on the contract until the next school board meeting.
Taxes and the budget were the real reasons the school board held the special meeting, and discussion on the two subjects took two hours. The board approved advertising the 2000 budget.
The budget is based on an assessed property valuation of $88.6 million. The 2000 tax rate to be advertised for the general fund will be $3.1453. For 1999, the general fund tax rate was $2.7032. For debt service, the proposed 2000 tax rate is $1.7004; the 1999 rate was $1.5789. The other proposed tax rates are $0.6933 for capital projects fund; $0.8527 for transportation; and $0.0112 for special education preschool.
The total tax rate to be advertised for 2000 will be $6.4029. The total 1999 tax rate was $5.5743, though $6.2092 was proposed.
Assistant superintendent Dan Kramer said they are supposed to advertise at the highest tax levy possible, but that doesn't mean the Indiana State Board of Accounts will approve it. He said the board can always lower a tax rate but can't raise it.
He also told them they may have to cut a portion out of the budget after the state reviews it.
"If assessed valuation goes to $90 million and the tax rate to $0.60, we would have to cut $74,000 out of the budget," Kramer said.
Board member Rod Eaton said a local trustee told him the time is coming when the tax rates can't go up anymore. "I don't know if we can cut $75,000 out, but there's places we're not spending our money wisely on at all," he said.
To cut back on spending money, the board discussed central buying for all schools, not opening more positions and not spending money just because it is there.
In other business, the school approved hiring Theresa Shafer as a teacher at Burket Elementary and Deborah Dunlevy as a teacher at Tippecanoe Valley High School.
