J-M board OKs budget with tax increase
JEFFERSON – Jefferson-Morgan School Board adopted a 2013-14 budget Monday that increases property taxes by 0.59 of a mill.
The board voted unanimously to adopt the $12,232,400 spending plan, which is about $200,000 greater than the current year budget and raises the property tax levy to 24.24 mills.
The administration and budget committee had worked hard to prepare a balanced budget that maintains quality education while also being fiscally responsible, business manager Jennifer Foringer said.
Increases in spending, she said, primarily resulted from rising costs, regular salary increases and the district’s contribution to the state retirement fund, which will jump by 4 percent this year.
The last two budget years for the district have been marked by cuts and decreased spending as state funding declined. Two years ago, the district’s state subsidy was reduced by more than $490,000.
Last year, only two of the 13 teachers who resigned or retired were replaced and other nonteaching positions were eliminated or their duties expanded or combined, Superintendent Donna Furnier said
The new budget will fund all existing positions and will allow the district to continue the cycle of replacing older textbooks, uniforms and supplies which was curtailed in the previous two years, she said.
In the last two years, the district has reduced spending to the “essentials,” said board member Lisa Mattish, chairman of the budget committee. The new budget starts the rebuilding process but still “barely scratches the surface” of fully addressing the district’s needs, she said.
The district this year expects to see a slight increase of about $69,000 in state funding. Board president Mark Pochron called the state’s increase in education funding “miniscule” and said the state continues to underfund public education as it shifts the burden of funding schools to the local districts.
The increase in the millage rate will increase property taxes for a person whose property is assessed at $50,000 by $29.50, from $1,182.50 to $1,212; taxes for a person whose property is assessed at $100,000 will see an increase of $59, from $2,365 to $2,424.
Property owners eligible for the homestead or farmstead exception will be able to subtract $242.68 from their property tax bill this year. The increase in the tax levy was the greatest permitted the district this year under the taxpayer relief act.
In other business, the board accepted the resignation of Cassie Mader, elementary librarian and consumer science teacher. Board member Debbie Phillips thanked Mader for the “phenomenal” job she did for the district.
Elementary Principal Sam Silbaugh reported on a partnership the district has formed with Waynesburg University that will allow the district to offer after-school reading assistance to students two days a week using the university’s student teachers.
The board reappointed coaches and assistant coaches, including head coaches John Curtis, baseball; Tony Barbetta, softball; David Friend, track; and Natalie Greenlee, cheerleading.
The board approved a motion designation separate male and female locker rooms at the field house and instructed the maintenance department to install partitions that blocked the view into the locker rooms when the doors are open.