by Garrick A Moritz, Gazette
The Garretson School Board met in regular session on March 8, 2021 at 5:45 p.m. at the Garretson School Library. The major topic of this month’s meeting was the school passing a $350,000 tax opt-out resolution. A large public presentation has been scheduled for Tuesday, March 23, 2021 at 7:00 p.m. in the new gym, with a short presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. The public vote on the opt out measure will be held in a special election on Tuesday, May 11, 2021.
The meeting started with the regular approval of the consent agenda, paying bills and approving quotes for fuel and approving the financial reports.
The first item of business was an exception to the community use of school facilities policy which normally restricts activities being held at the school from being for profit events. However, the annual summer sports camps that the school has hosted have regularly gotten exempted from this rule via a board vote, and this exception for a volleyball summer camp was no different, with Rachel Hanisch abstaining from the vote.
Next the board assigned members to attend each of the local equalization meetings of Garretson, Sherman, Palisades Township, Edison Township, and Highland Township.
At this time, Supt. Guy Johnson and Business Manager Jacob Schweitzer gave the board a briefing on the proposed tax opt-out resolution discussed at the last board meeting.
Five years ago, the school was facing a potentially school-closing deficit. Substantially more funds were going out than coming in, and the Garretson School Board requested to pass a $500,000 per year opt-out measure to turn the school back around. When the school received permission from the voters to go ahead with the tax increase, they promised to do their best to reduce costs and asked the community to do its best to grow. The five years are now up, and while there have been promising signs in the right direction, a potential deficit still remains.
Back in 2016, the school was deficit spending at a rate that the administration did not feel was sustainable. At that time, they passed a tax opt out measure for $500,000 per year for five years to support the general fund balance.
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