Nevada school district to ask voters for 5-year tax hike

By Steve Moyer

Nevada Daily Mail

On Aug. 3, Nevada R-5 School District voters will be asked to approve an additional $500,000 in property taxes -- an amount school board members say is needed to help pull the district out of the red.

The Nevada School Board voted unanimously at its meeting Wednesday night to ask voters to increase the levy 39 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The ballot language needed to be certified by May 25 in order to get the measure on the August ballot.

In order to make the 39 cent levy increase more palatable to the district's voters, the board voted to include a five-year sunset provision, meaning the increase would expire in 2009.

"I think we should have the sunset provision in place," said board member Larry Forkner. "I think people want to know we're trying to make this as painless as possible."

Superintendent Dr. Ted Davis pointed out that the $500,000 increase in local taxes would leverage an additional $900,000 from the state.

"The school foundation formula is levy driven -- for every dollar collected locally, we receive just under $2 from the state," Davis said.

According to Davis, one of the problems with the state's school foundation formula is that all the money to fund it is divided among the schools of the state according to how much they raise locally.

The schools with higher levies get more state money, which leaves less money to be divided by the districts with lower levies. Davis pointed out that several districts around the state had passed increases recently and more were on the ballot.

"The 80 school districts that were successful with levy elections last month meant that we lost an estimated $3,000 to $4,000," he said. "Because they were successful it takes more money out of the hopper -- the general revenues for school funding."

Davis expressed pride in the district for maintaining performance despite the previous cuts, but warned that additional cuts would impact the district's level of performance.

"On our annual performance we got 100 percent. We're accredited with distinction for high achievement," Davis said. "Those are claims to real success that we have with our students. Our problem is we're in the people business and without the people and the manpower to do it the job doesn't get done."

Davis said if the district is going to have the quality of instruction and programs, it can't be done with current budget levels.

"This is my 25th year of being a superintendent, that we can't do it with the revenue that we're expecting from the state," Davis said.

Davis pointed out to the board that the district had already reduced staff and faculty by more than 30 positions and that another 25 to 30 jobs would have to be eliminated to bring the budget into balance.

About 87 percent of our budget is for personnel and only 13 percent goes for utilities, insurance, maintenance and expenditures like that, Davis said.

"Many of these are fixed costs so the majority of the money would have to come from cutting positions and as the board has already made clear that is unacceptable," Davis said.

In other business the board:

* Recognized former board president Steve Cubbage for his service.

* Discussed the Career Ladder program.

* Recognized high school math teacher Cindy Bullard as the district's teacher of the year.

* Recognized two district teachers honored by Wal-Mart as teachers of the year, Chris Chrisenberry and Tricia Brandt.

* Accepted a bid from Industrial Roofing for work at Bryan Elementary.

* Accepted a bid from Mid-Continental Restoration for tuckpointing the chimney at Bryan Elementary.

* Accepted a bid for asbestos abatement from Sunburst Abatement.

* Accepted a bid for asphalt repair from Blevins Construction.

* Accepted the high bid from Kenneth Wilson for $133,150 to purchase the house built by the Construction Technology class.