June 10th, 2009 School Board Meeting

Last night the School district honored it's retiring employees before the board meetings. We had many teachers who have spent over 25 years with the district ... some retiring with 40 years of service.

We also had the last budget meeting. The AVERAGE tax increase has been decreased to $76. We need to keep in mind two very important things:

1. This is an AVERAGE, not the increase everyone will see. Some homeowners will see a higher increase while others will pay less. The amount paid is based on the assessed value of your home.


2. This budget accounts for over $1.8 million in stimulus funds from the state. This money will only be available for the 09-10 and 10-11 school years. We can not count on this money in the future to help with our costs.

There were also concerns about positions at the high school that may be cut in addition to district wide positions that may be affected. These needed to be discussed in Executive Session under personnel matters. The final vote on the budget will be held on June 17th, 2009.

During the Regular Action Meeting we voted to approve the Full Day Kindergarten Pilot program. The previous vote for this pilot program mentioned that it would be funded by the Accountability Block Grant. Last year we did not get as much in the ABG as expected and this year that money has been rolled into our regular budget. To make sure we could still have the program, we needed to vote on the program again without mentioning the grants. The lotteries for the program will be held as follows:

• Belmont Hills 2:00 pm
• Cornwells 2:15 pm
• Faust 2:30 pm
• Rush 2:45 pm
• Struble 3:00 pm
• Valley 3:15 pm