But after six people spoke against the 4-mill collection at Monday night’s public forum, the district may instead collect 2 mills, gathering $137,848.
Andrew Shealy was one who spoke during Monday’s mic time, weary of a tax increase.
“I was concerned about the millage, and it’s my feeling that with the state of the economy, we don’t need to be going up on taxes,” says Shealy.
Newberry real estate investor Thadd Mays with Mays Contracting also resists the tax rub.
“They’re killing our property values,” says Mays of the school district. “They are continuing to raise the taxes in Newberry. It is reducing the property value. When the taxes go up it makes the property less attractive.”
“Everybody in this economy has had to cut back and the school district has to cut back too. They’re going to have to learn to live on less,” says Mays.
But on the other side of the possible increased local tax levy is $3.4 million cuts in state funding. Chief Financial Officer for the district Susan Dowd spent long hours early this budget season slicing spending.
There were thousands of dollars worth of budget cuts here and there, but 85 percent of the district’s spending goes to employees.
So the board passed the first budget reading last month, saving big money with employee furloughs, 13 layoffs and reward cuts for teachers who are nationally board certified.
And now that $1.8 million in stimulus money is headed to the Newberry School District, some job cuts could be pasted back.
At a May work session, the school board made a list of what it wants to spend if stimulus funds came.
Now that Gov. Mark Sanford is being forced to accept the federal funds on South Carolina’s behalf, the board pulled out its work session list of what it hopes to reinstall.
Here’s what district administration drew from that list:
The wish list with costs
• Eliminating employee furloughs: $321,190
• Reinstatement of 10 percent of the 20 percent cut in school and department supply budgets: $181,450
Supply budgets cover a wide area. These budgets can fund anything from paper used in classroom to an instructional meeting for English teachers to teacher recruitment.
• Reinstatement of current National Board Certification supplements: $150,243
• Possible reinstatement of positions within the following categories: certified instructional support, administrative and classified categories. The savings depends on how many and which positions are reinstated.
Dowd says the board asked the administration to reexamine the list and consider other options.
“These are just recommendations,” says Dowd. “It is up to the school board to give guidance and direction on the administration’s recommendations.”
As far as how many of the 13 layoffs could be reversed, Dowd says there is no certain number at this time.
“After hearing from our community last night [Monday] and taking input from our school board members, it is now our responsibility to present a recommendation for our board at our June 22 meeting,” says Superintendent Bennie Bennett. “This will be our second reading for our budget which we will begin implementing in July.”
What is certain is the wrapping in which stimulus money will arrive.
Bennett says stimulus money will fully fund the “base student cost,” or the per-pupil spending total that says how much state money is spent per student.
Base student cost money affects anything used to operate schools, such as teacher salaries, classroom supplies, travel and student-teacher ratios.
In other words, the stimulus money generates income for the district to best use.
“Now it’s up to us to determine how to spend those dollars,” says Bennett.
The administration is not currently looking at using the money for its building projects, says Bennett.
They are focusing on the prioritized list the board made last month, he says.
For now, administration is writing a plan that “our board will support and one that does good for our students,” said Bennett.
The second and final budget reading for adoption will be June 22 at 7:30 p.m. at the Learning Center.
Typically, school board meetings are held the fourth Monday of each month.
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