RC Superintendent Tidbits
By: Mark Otten
Rock County just went through its first joint public hearing, which is now required by law if political subdivisions are increasing spending by more than the allowable growth rate for the year. If you are a landowner/homeowner in Rock County, you should have received a pink postcard for each parcel you own. This postcard was intended to educate landowners/homeowners of the taxes they are currently paying and the proposed taxes of the political subdivisions as well as inform them of the joint public hearing date, time, and location. Hopefully it accomplished what it was meant to accomplish.
During our meeting, I presented on the budget for Rock County Public Schools including the why behind the increase in our spending. For those of you who were not in attendance, I thought I would summarize a bit of that in this article.
Our increase in spending is completely due to the renovation/addition project we are needing to do at the high school. This project has been estimated to cost around $3,500,000 and I am required to budget for all of that expense in this year’s budget. However, we will not actually be asking for that money this year to do the project. We will be spreading that out over the course of two separate payments, one for seven years and the other for ten years. This will help us to lessen the burden on the tax payers right now. The amount of money we are asking for to make the payment is around $500,000 which is not all an increase in tax asking. With the additional state aid we will receive this year, we were able to lower our tax asking in the general fund by $234,853 which then offsets some of the money needed to make these payments.
One of the questions asked of me is whether or not we need to do the entire project. Here is what we are accomplishing with this project: replacing all electrical including the master switches; replacing all plumbing; updating the HVAC; providing dedicated storage for score table, sky lift, washer and dryer, and other materials currently stored in a classroom; adding a dedicated concession stand which will not be in a classroom; moving the offices to the front entry and securing our front entry; installing bathrooms which will be ADA compliant. As you can see, we are accomplishing a lot with this project. If we pair it back, we will not be able to accomplish all of these goals. The school board and I agree that these are all vital upgrades that need to happen for the safety and security of our students and staff.
I appreciated the attendance at the joint public hearing and the questions that were asked. If people do not come and ask questions, they may not have the most accurate and up-to-date information. This allowed people to come and be heard. As a school board and the superintendent, we will take all ideas into consideration as we are trying to be as conservative as we can with tax payer dollars while still providing a quality education and experience for our kids in Rock County Public Schools.