Remember back in June when the Madison Central School Board surprised us by choosing not to take advantage of opt-out funds for the FY2008 budget? We were warned then that that decision wasn't final, that the board still didn't have to submit its final tax levy request to the county auditor until October 1.
Well, October 1 is coming, and designating opt-out funds for the coming fiscal year is on the agenda (item #17) for the Madison school board meeting Monday, September 10. We'll learn if the fiscal outlook for the district has changed enough in the last three months to warrant a reversal of the June reversal. For those of you who have already spent your projected tax savings (I told you not to!), or for you city folks who want to save that money so you can afford the tax increase a new pool will bring, it's time to call your school board members. For those of you who thought the school board was nuts not to take advantage of the opt-out after fighting so hard to get it, ditto! Monday night, 6:30 p.m., middle school lunchroom!
I figured they didn't take the opt out money because they were going to come back with a new proposal for a new gym. And then they could claim they were being fiscally responsible with the opt out money.
ReplyDeleteWill be interesting to see what they say at the meeting.
And we've heard a couple rumbles about bringing that gym project back lately, from board president Mark Hawkes's guest column in MDL several days ago and from Pamida's Shannon Kaufman in the August Chamber of Commerce Newsletter (see page 2). Indeed, the board's discussion and decision Monday night will be interesting....
ReplyDeleteThe initial gym proposal was brought forward by Bud Postma and Randy Schaefer. Schaefer and Postma worked on the proposal for several months along with a group of Madison supporters. Mr. Hawkes was involved with that committee as a supporter and also served as somewhat of a liason between the school board and the gym promoters. The gym proposal was not driven by the school board, it was simply endorsed, which was necessary in order to bring a bond proposal to the public. At this time there has been no plan to bring forward another gym proposal. The decision to give back the opt out money appeared hasty since board members had very little notice of the decision before voting. Now that all parties have had a chance to weight in, there are probably immediate needs that were overlooked in June that need to be addressed with a portion of those opt out funds, but the gym package is not part of any opt out decision.
ReplyDeleteAnon said, "The decision to give back the opt out money appeared hasty since board members had very little notice of the decision before voting."
ReplyDeletePlease explain. Why did the board members have very little notice of this? Whose decision was this to not use the opt out funds if not the school board's?