School board votes to renew tax levy

In their first meeting of the new year, Bluffton school board voted to renew the half-percent income tax to be voted on May 4, 2010. The tax increase would begin in January 2011 after the current half-percent income tax expires.

The money from the income tax levy will collect about $600,000 for the school district. Cuts in state funding has decreased the money given to Bluffton Schools by $40,000 this year and $80,000 next year.

Bluffton Schools superintendent Greg Denecker said that the school district will continue to be transparent with how they are spending the money collected from the half-percent income tax. The money is to be used for permanent improvements to the school; a permanent improvement is one that will last five or more years.

“With these funds we will continue to maintain and provide a nice learning environment for all students,” said Denecker.

In another move during the Monday night school board meeting, the board voted to request a waiver to delay the implementation of all day, everyday kindergarten for the 2010-2011 school year.

The request to delay the implementation of all-day kindergarten is in effort to balance the school district’s budget. Last year, Bluffton Exempted Village Schools finished more than $30,000 in the black. Superintendent Decker added that he was confident that the waiver would be approved by the state.

The school district has been consistently performing at high levels and recently received the state’s highest honor, “Excellent with Distinction”. School officials do not believe that all-day, everyday kindergarten is a critical component of their students’ success.

“Studies about full-day and half-day kindergarten are out there and they go either way,” said Denecker. “If we were told we had to, then we would implement all-day kindergarten.”

Even if all-day, everyday kindergarten was required by the district, parents would still have the choice to send their child to half-day or full-day kindergarten.

In other school board news, the district plans to roll out a new alert system, Rhino Alerts, for parents. The system will allow information to be e-mailed or texted to a cell phone. Users may subscribe by visiting http://rhinoalerts.noacsc.org/. The schools will release more information later this month to parents about the new alert system.

Also, the district signed off to participate in a federal grant competition, Race to the Top. The grant is a competition among states and the winning state would receive $200 to $400 million to be distributed to all districts. The second step of the grant application process is in April.

In addition, new leadership was elected for the year 2010. Jeremy Scoles is the new president and Renee Smith is the new vice president.