Superintendent: Not Going to Cap Provides Balance

The decision to present a school budget below the state-mandated 2-percent tax levy cap was influenced by what the Hillsborough Board of Education feels will be more supported by residents, the superintendent said at Tuesday night's Community Partnership Network meeting at .

The , which the board narrowly approved by a 4-3 vote, has been met with some public scrutiny since it is about $1 million below the 2-percent tax levy cap.

“The decision to go or not go to cap is based on what the board feels the community will support,” Superintendent Jorden Schiff said.

The four or so attendees from the general public who attended Tuesday night’s meeting voiced support for developing a budget that reaches the 2 percent cap.

“I’m bothered by the fact that you are coming in so far under the cap,” said resident John Hardenberg, whose comments were indicative of the small group. “It bothers me about the message that it sends. If you are leaving pieces of your strategic plan behind, because you are saying that you don’t want to pay for them, I think you are making a mistake. ”

On March 7, Schiff's tentative budget passed a board vote with four members voting in favor of it. The proposed budget represents a tax levy of $81,679,123, or a .4 percent increase over last year’s $81,205,961 levy. The  school district will vote on the final budget on March 26.

Under the tentative budget, the tax rate would increase by less than 1 cent, from $1.444 per $100 of assessed value to $1.453 per $100 of assessed value. A homeowner assessed at $368,700 would see their tax bill increase by $32 - a marginal gesture toward tax relief.

Despite the $1 million under cap scenario, Schiff’s presentation outlined a host of areas for which the funding would be used to improve the district. Those areas include: revision of curriculum areas, with the exception of math and science, a new World Language program, half of which will be Spanish and then other half Mandarin Chinese, lowering class sizes at middle and high schools, implementing a research-based teacher training teacher model of development, updating teacher workstations (laptops), increasing investments in capital improvements and complete energy audits at all schools.

The tentative budget includes an energy audit plan that the district hopes to leverage into capital projects for which an Energy Savings Improvement Plan (ESIP) will fund. The projects would allow district to fund large projects, like roof replacements, through the energy savings realized over a 12 or 15 year bond, for example.

Although those items may have been more than enough to convince the four residents in attendance who favor closing that $1 million gap, Schiff said striking the right balance for community acceptance is key.

“The balance that we are talking about is about finding a budget that can be supported by the entire community,” Schiff said. “There are other parts of our community that would have concerns about increasing taxes when the economy is not working for them.”