ARCANUM – In an Arcanum-Butler Local School District Board of Education meeting, May 11, Treasurer Matt Huffman discussed some items updated from the original forecast in the fall.
One of those items was the Property Tax.
“At at our tax budget hearing, they indicated to us that our (Agricultural) AG values would go down about 22 percent, so I built that decrease into this updated forecast,” he said. “This year, we are projecting a collection of $2.3 million, next year it goes down to $2.2 million and the year after we are down to $2.1 million and it stays pretty consistent for the remaining two years of that forecast.”
In the original Income Tax forecast, Huffman said he had it going up about $21,000, due to an increase in the actual student enrollment from an estimate of 1,002 students to an actual 1,042.
“Now, we are going up to about $80,000 for the year, so I have a gain of $60,000 more than we expected in the original forecast,” he said. “That has increased our state funding quite a bit.”
In other news, the Board approved to accept a donation from the (Parent Teacher Organization) PTO of $8,600 to purchase iPads for the Elementary School. According to Superintendent John Stephens, the original request from the PTO was to help pay a partial amount towards the iPad purchase, and they agreed to pay the full amount.
The Board also approved: Group Rating agreement with the Southwest Ohio Educational Purchasing Council and Hunter Consulting for the 2018 Worker’s Compensation and Unemployment enrollment fee of $600; the purchase of 13 lockers from Oral T. Carter & Associates, Inc., at a cost not to exceed $3,500; one-year contracts for the following for the 2017/18 school year: Kathy Kuhbander, High School language arts; Britney Pfahler, First Grade and Chey Kramer, Title I Tutor; thirteen part-time summer custodial workers and the following Middle School Summer School Instructors for June: Elizabeth Pitzer, Kim Peltier and Amy Seger. In addition, the Board approved: the 2017 Senior Graduation list of 95, pending completion of requirements.
Superintendent Stephens and Treasurer Huffman discussed the possibility of moving forward on exploring some plans for a multi-purpose building, such as hiring an architect, fundraising options and reaching out to the community. More discussion is in the works. Also, the District Leadership Team is doing something different as they finish up the end of the year, Stephens said.
“The team is meeting in June to look at the data we have and the goals we have established this year and start looking to next year,” he said. “That will have us ready a little bit quicker for August.”
He also congratulated Middle and High School Band and Director Heather Marsh for the earned Superior Rating at the Ohio Music Education Association’s (OMEA) State Adjudicated Event, in April.
“They were flawless in that performance,” Stephens said.
In other news, Superintendent Stephens discussed a draft of a Memorandum of Understanding between Arcanum-Butler Local School District and the Arcanum Police Department of the duties of the School Resource Officer. He offered for the Board to enter any suggestions before June.
“My goal, in June, would be to approve a new contract,” he said.
Principal Jason Stephan thanked the (Students Against Destructive Decisions) SADD Club and the Junior class for a great Prom week. He was also excited about this year’s fifth annual Serve Arcanum Day.
“This graduating class will have done more than 200 projects in their high school career,” Stephan said.
Middle School Principal Marcus Bixler said the Student Council dance was a big hit.
“It was probably the largest crowd of dancers the school has ever had,” he said.
