Public Meetings for New Facility Funding
by Darrel Stufflebeam
February 26, 2008
The public meetings to discuss New Facility Funding have been scheduled. The first meeting will be held on March 3rd at 7:00 in the SGE library. The second meeting will be held March 11th at 7:00 in the WES library. Patrons will learn the details of New Facility Funding and will have the opportunity to express their opinions to the BOE. You can view all of the details by clicking on the PowerPoint presentation at the bottom of this article. If you would like a copy of the presentation please call me at 457-3732 or email me at stuffled@rockcreekschools.org.
Essentially, New Facility Funding allows school districts to
receive a large amount of state money for students that attend
school in a new building. That’s the good news. The bad news is
that, in order to be eligible, the school district must have a
Local Option Budget (local property taxes) equal to at least 25% of
its General Fund Budget. Most school districts are eligible for New
Facility Funding. Because our LOB is relatively low, however, we
would have to increase our property taxes for two years to receive
the extra funding.
How much
money would we get from the state? How much would the tax increase
cost for people that own property? What would the district do with
the money? Although it’s very difficult to offer exact figures, we
have estimates regarding new funding and taxes for the two years of
eligibility. We also have a spending plan in place should the BOE
decide to pursue the additional funding.
The school district would gain approximately $1.39 million from the state over the two years of New Facility Funding eligibility. Becoming eligible would require a local tax mill increase of approximately 6 mills. A mill is one dollar of tax for every thousand dollars of assessed value of property. For a person with a $100,000 home the additional cost would be about $69 a year. Please keep in mind that all figures are estimated and could change somewhat.
If the BOE chose to pursue New Facility Funding, the rate of return on our local investment would be about 235%. In other words, for every dollar we raise locally, we would get about $2.35 from the state.
In regard to spending, our Keep Improving District Schools (KIDS) Committee has discussed various priorities. One priority for spending would be renovations at WES. Those renovations would include central air and new windows. We also have plans to use a portion of the new funding to replace some vehicles and update and expand some classroom technology. The remaining funds could be saved for potential future building expansions or used for other capital improvements. Since the funding is available for only two years, the money couldn’t be used for continual expenses like salaries.
All of the details are available in the PowerPoint, which you can access here:
