District OKs tax request

Libby School District 4 Board members on Monday voted without dissent to ask residents during the May 7 election for a $350,000 tax increase to further fund the district.

The motion to proceed with the mill-levy request was made by Board Member Les Nelson and seconded by Amy Fantozzi. Affirming the vote were board members Bruce Sickler, Lori Benson and Melissa LaGoy. Board member Ellen Johnston was not present.

“We (shouldn’t) look at this as just running a mill levy. We should look at this as doing what we can to pass a levy,” Nelson said, emphasizing the need for passage. 

The resolution also authorized the election for the purpose of filling the seats of expiring three-year terms of Board President Tracy Comeau and Nelson.

Board members expressed an interest in beginning as soon as possible in establishing a political action committee to urge the passage of the levy. In the closing minutes of the meeting, Tommy Cook agreed to be chairman of the PAC.

“I’m happy to take the lead,” said Cook, who has a son in kindergarten at Libby Elementary School. “I’ll be happy to help in any way.”

Cook emphasized the importance of assembling like-minded committee members as soon as possible.

With Cook’s comments, Superintendent K.W. Maki agreed to be a receiver of persons interested in serving on the committee by calling his office at 293-8811.

Libby High School Principal Rik Rewerts said successful passage of the mill levy will take a concerted effort by persons who want to see it passed.

Rewerts said he and other administrators already have given back what amounted to compensation for overtime hours, saying the board may want to give that option to staff before the board made personnel cutbacks.

“We’ve given back our extended days in an effort to help (the budget crunch),” Rewerts said. The extended days were paydays extended to administrators for work days beyond the school year.

“Certainly, I think it will take an effort from everyone,” Rewerts said. “I think administrators should give more because we get paid more, but it will take something from everyone, even the unions.” 

Tracy Graham, a fourth-grader teacher at Libby Elementary School who is the Libby Education Association (LEA) union representative, said members will meet Monday, Nov. 19, to discuss, among other things, the mill-levy request.

“I can’t say what the union will do,” Graham said. “It’s on our agenda, and we’ll have an open discussion about it. I don’t know which way they’ll go.”

However, Graham, who has been the union rep for two of her 21 years in the district, said she would support a move to roll back costs.

“If you’re asking me, personally, I would be open to cuts to save co-workers’ jobs, but, again, that’s just me,” Graham said.

During the meeting Monday, Maki presented a 2013-14 budget forecast that included a $779,317 shortfall, of which $610,317 can be attributed to declining enrollment and compensation for those students from the state. Another $169,000 is estimated of the cost of steps and lanes, which are pay increases for district staff.

Variables to whittle the $779,317 figure include a possible 0.89 percent funding increase from the state, which amounts to $65,000, energy savings of $10,000 from more efficient windows and a new boiler system, and $235,000 from staff reductions of four to five people, bringing the total to $469,000.

If the district can get staff to forgive the steps and lanes increases, the figure drops to $300,000. It was that figure that Board President Tracy Comeau estimated was cutting the budget too close. It’s for that reason, Comeau, an accountant, and the Budget Committee recommended the $350,000 mill-levy request.

District 4 was last successful in 2002 with a mill-levy request. Subsequent attempts for a mill levy and a bond issue have failed.

“We’ve cut as much as we can,” Maki said. “Simply, there are no more schools to close.”

The current budget for the district is $9.3 million annually, but that figure is less than  previous years.

“It has come down with the consolidation of campuses,” said Nelson, a member of the Budget Committee.

Board members meet the second Monday of every month at 7 p.m. in the Little Theatre of the Central School/Administration Building.

In other business, the Board voted to extend the contract the district has with Head Start at the Plummer School Complex by nine years. The contract was to expire in 2016, but the board voted 4-1 to extend the contract to 2025. 

Board members Sickler, Fantozzi, Nelson and Benson voted in favor of the extension. LaGoy voted against the extension, saying she felt not knowing the result of the mill-levy vote and the uncertainty of district finances, she could not vote in favor of the extension. LaGoy emphasized her vote was not cast in opposition to Head Start.

Head Start Administrator Peggy Rayome and Ken Foss told the board of the improvements the agency has made to the building and grounds: $210,000 to the building from improvements to windows, the kitchen, bathrooms, installation of safety glass, electrical work and security cameras inside and out of the building.

Rayome also mentioned another $110,000 improvements to the grounds in the form of playground upgrades; another $18,000 for an outside bathroom and $6,000 for drains on the parking lot.

Maki called the Plummer Complex contract with the district a “good relationship,” citing the building improvements.