Superintendent's Report: Improvements Without Raising Past Levy Cap

With a report outlining student and staff achievement goals and a focus on technology, the district plans to accomplish each goal without raising taxes over the state-set two percent cap.

“That means that all of these ideas would need to remain within the cap,” District Superintendent Jorden Schiff said during his presentation at the Board of Education’s July 26 meeting.

Recommended additions and improvements focus on technology, curriculum and staff development, including reinstating the district’s language program, adding technology for staff and students and increasing staff development opportunities. The district will also focus on increasing access to science, technology, engineering and math opportunities, particularly in the middle school.

But the improvements come with prices, which the district hopes to offset through other revenue streams.

“Any additional cost would not be passed on to the taxpayers beyond the 2 percent cap,” Schiff said. “We hope to work them into the budget with cost savings from green initiatives and other efficiencies and revenue streams.”

Under his plan, Schiff hopes to use half of the revenues from green initiatives to fund new practices, while using the other half toward property tax relief. In addition, exploring state and federal grants is on the plan too, as are exploring various revenue streams.

“These would be monies to fund the innovative practices known as mini-grants for technology,” Schiff said. “There may be other innovative practices that the board may wish to engage. The idea .  .  .is really a promise, a covenant we make with our community to say the savings we are going to realize as part of going green that half of it will come back to the districts, half of it will be used to relieve the property tax version.”

For one board member, the improvements come with a note about the levy caps and taxes.

“Within also does not automatically mean at cap,” Thomas Kinst said. “With limited resources, we have to prioritize and think within the establishment of a new strategic plan that has input from appropriate stakeholders.”

Kinst noted that the budget planning process should look toward the strategic plan for guidance, since it would assure the district works towards its established goals. He also noted that the taxpayers have the final decision regarding any increases and plans when they vote on Election Day.

“If the voting residents feel that is too much, they will say so,” Kinst said.

Board member Judy Haas’ concerns included determining the exact savings from the district’s green initiatives, particularly since the district already has several green initiatives.

“We’ve been doing certain green initiatives for years, like the Energy for America program, and hopefully will continue that,” she said. “I think after a certain number of years, you get to a point of no return. Are you going to be counting the reams of paper that we’re not using because we’re doing paperless board meetings.”

“I just don’t want green practices isolated and identified as the only area that’s going to provide tax relief as oppose to everything else,” she added. “Ultimately, tax relief comes when you do a good, efficient job in everything that you do.”

In addition, several district programs, like its TEACH initiative, have students creating energy savings plans for their schools, with the intent that they will see a portion of the money returned to the school, she said.

“I thought part of those programs was to provide them with the incentive to keep going,” Haas said. “If these programs exist with these incentives, how are we going to explain these incentives going elsewhere?”

The district plans to measure its energy and green initiative savings by first taking benchmark consumption numbers, and then implementing behavioral or technology changes, Schiff said. The changes can range from turning off lights, computers or projectors to installing newer heating controls that lower the temperature of a room when it’s not in use.

“I believe that there are methodologies .  .  . that can pull this down to dollars and cents for us,” he said. “You are right that the savings is not forever. You realize certain savings in particular the first year, year and a half.”

The incentives for certain programs would be a topic for additional discussion, Schiff said.