Glenwood City School District holds Budget Hearing and Annual Meeting

By Kelsie Hoitomt

GLENWOOD  CITY – The School District of Glenwood City held their Budget Hearing and Annual Meeting this past Monday in the library.

It went as most years have with Superintendent Tim Emholtz giving the run down of the proposed 2013-14 budget including the revenue receipts and the expenditures. Also included was the list of each Fund including Fund 10, Fund 50, Fund 39 etc and the amount of monies that is in each of those.

 Due to the “Third Friday” count not being made yet, the numbers in the budget were not set in stone, but the estimated number of students in the school this year is between 712-730, which is actually a slight increase from last year.

The equalized value of property is another factor that is not set in stone yet as well, which can effect the mill rate and the total tax levy.

As of right now, if it is assumed that there is no change in the equalized value of property in the District, the mill rate will be $9.79 per $1,000 of equalized value for 2013-14, which is an increase from last year’s mill rate of $9.51.

Currently the school district is levying for a proposed property tax total of $2,114,613, which is an increase from the unaudited 2012-13 tax levy of $2,032,306.

There was a motion by Jon Mrdutt to approve the proposed tax levy of $2,114,613 to support the proposed budget, which was seconded by Judy Achterhof with 15 total yes votes and one objection.

Again, the mill rate and levy will be affected slightly when the fall enrollment is confirmed and the Board certifies the levy in October.

All together in the school district, the net total of expenditures in all funds increased from the unaudited 2012-13 figure of $8,380,642.61 to $9,518,517 in the 2013-14 budget.

Regular Meeting

It just so happened that the night of the regularly scheduled board meeting fell on the same night of annual meeting so the Board met an hour prior to the opening of the annual meeting to discuss the few items on the agenda.

First the Board approved Jim Ward of Weld, Riley, Prenn and Ricci as the hearing officer for any expulsion hearings during the 2013-14 school year.

Then a motion was made to accept an anonymous $1,000 donation that is to be used on the baseball field. That money is to go towards the purchasing of sod so the field can be completed as left field and some other patches need grass.

Following that was the approval of free admission of volunteers into this Friday night’s football game. There is to be further discussion on the specific criteria of games that volunteers will be allowed in for free.

The last item approved was made after a lengthy discussion about the track and the radius repair that is needed because roughly an inch of asphalt needs to be cut so it does not make a ledge.

It was said that one day last week, the forms were removed and then in the evening a crew came in to place dirt and seed, but some time in the middle of that there was damage made to the radius of the track on the north end.

Currently on the agenda of things to get done is the surfacing of the track as the rubberized layer needs to be completed and there are only so many dates in the upcoming month that Fischer Track can do this.

“So the problem lies with whether or not to go ahead and do the surface of the track and then deal with the radius or fix the radius and then do the surface. However, if we fix the radius first then that jeopardizes whether or not there will be enough time to get the surface done before next year ” said Emholtz.

Board members John Logghe and Jon Mrdutt spoke up about their concern with time and the fact that if so much time is spent fixing such a minor repair that doesn’t even affect the running surface of the track, then our sports team won’t even be able to use the track next season.

Board President, Charles Rasmussen argued their statements and believed that the mistake should be fixed all together and if it affected the season next year, so be it.

Finally the discussion came to a close when Mrdutt made the motion to have the cut made on the radius so there isn’t a ledge and then have Fischer Track come in to resurface the track, all in this year’s time. The motion was seconded by Charlotte Stout and approved with two objections.