[0:07] All right. Sixth of all, let's call the order of public hearing and proposed a public tax increase.

[0:18] I don't know what the print may be in here. Record. It's going.

[0:24] Well, for the record, today's August 11th, 6 o'clock, we're meeting at the High School on the 20th boardroom, Mr. Hanson, myself.

[0:35] This is no way Mr. Cook. Mr. Bailey is excused today, the personal item.

[0:43] I was keeping a few, didn't get a chance to sign the yellow paper on the way in.

[0:49] Please sign it on the way out.

[0:53] With that, I'll turn the time over to our superintendent and the business of the district

[0:57] to talk about property tax.

[1:07] Thank you all for being here.

[1:08] My name is Ricky Stewart.

[1:09] I'm a business administrator for the School District.

[1:11] I am lucky enough to be a graduate of course and be nice as well as a teacher of course and be nice

[1:17] I have children in the district, I'm a tax payer in this district, and now I employ the district and I care about this district.

[1:24] And so as we go through some of these items, there are three ways that you can participate in the meeting with public comment.

[1:31] And we'll get to those at the end of the presentation.

[1:34] If you didn't sign in for public comment, you still can sign in back there.

[1:39] And then this is super important. We'll handle that when we get here at the end.

[1:44] can get the public comment portion. Also, in the back table, you'll find a material,

[1:50] you'll find the county combined to add for your tax increases in the county, as well

[1:55] as the street contact station. At the site, I think you'll find our property tax index

[1:59] savings, which will go over here as well, as well as a couple of other irons that you can

[2:05] then refer to as we go through the presentation. So with that, we will get to a right or be

[2:14] over here is running a virtual meeting as well, so if you are joining us virtually, you can include your global comment and chat box, and then you also may send emails as well, and we'll get your public comment at the end.

[2:28] We'll begin with the purpose and priorities of the proposed tax increase.

[2:33] So the tax increase would add approximately $780,000 to the total district budget.

[2:40] The vote of them would be an increase of $100,000 that would cover curriculum software and

[2:44] literacy support, with new mandates for literacy in K-3-3 that would help support that initiative.

[2:52] we would then, the proposed tax increase will also cover $650,000 of capital improvements,

[3:00] I would include HVAC, facility and ground improvements parking lot maintenance and student transportation.

[3:04] Not supported by this increase, we want to be very clear about this.

[3:08] None of this increase would cover salaries, any benefits, district overhead,

[3:13] any ongoing position of staff raises.

[3:16] So this money will be allocated simply for students.

[3:19] students' success, and then maybe some buildings.

[3:23] And when we talk about our capital short haul in this district,

[3:28] so our principals are instructional leaders in this district,

[3:31] go through their buildings, and they decide improvements that need to be made in their buildings.

[3:37] The list this year requested capital projects from our buildings

[3:41] just over $4.3 million.

[3:43] It approved capital projects that were budgeted just about $2.2 million.

[3:48] dollars. So we have a capital needs budget shortfall of just over $2 million. This is

[3:54] $50,000 would be useful to work against that shortfall. But again, it's not something

[4:00] that we're not building new buildings. We're just simply maintaining the buildings that we have

[4:05] and trying to sum up with the creating useful, for a long, useful life of these buildings

[4:13] by having proper maintenance and by continuing to support principles in their efforts to educate students

[4:20] and make sure they have a safe, secure, happy place to come to school.

[4:27] All right. Okay. So the question is why now? For those of you who are unaware, we have to maintain tax rate

[4:35] that's especially levels to maximize state guarantee money. You have to show local effort in order for the stage

[4:41] to give to be part of the minimum school program,

[4:44] which is that basic WB fund name.

[4:47] So you have to, you can get up to 20 improvements

[4:49] in terms of local tax efforts,

[4:51] and then the state will then make up the difference.

[4:54] There are some school districts

[4:56] that don't take any state guaranteed money.

[4:58] We are not one of those districts.

[5:00] There are local efforts, fun with their schools.

[5:03] For most of the schools in the state,

[5:05] that is, our school districts can say that is not the case.

[5:08] So, we could change in the state's full harmless specification, require solicitors to adjust

[5:14] property metrics approximately every other year to show the tax local tax efforts.

[5:20] Instead of every five years, which was difficult in the previous years, without local efforts

[5:27] or qualifying tax increase, the district will lose guarantee state revenue, and that will

[5:32] phase out over the next three years, then since 2029.

[5:36] So, without guaranteeing local efforts, that state guaranteeing money will phase out.

[5:46] This slide has a lot of information, so this equalizing funding has a lot of information.

[5:51] That's why there's a copy on the back table, so you can refer to it as you need to.

[5:55] We'll hit the highlights here, but you tell us a little funding uses local, local, programming

[6:00] taxes.

[6:02] But since the property balance is different across the state, programs like the voter levy and the board levy help equalize.

[6:09] So this state is recognized to attack and power of school districts to help equalize that across the state.

[6:17] So these programs work on the state heritage that we talked about.

[6:20] If a school district's local property taxes don't mean a set amount for students, the state provides the extra money.

[6:26] that we said, again, that program we can phase out.

[6:31] So this year, we get 66% next year, 37% until we get to 2029.

[6:38] And then it will be those state guarantees dry out.

[6:41] So without local efforts, essentially the school district will

[6:45] follow a flip in terms of local or in terms of state funding to match

[6:49] that local guarantee or the state guarantee.

[6:52] The board levied, which is $100,000 proposed, allows the school board to levied property

[6:58] tax following to the taxation without a public vote.

[7:02] The main goal of these program is equalization.

[7:05] Ensuring no matter where students and state of Utah live, they have access to similar educational

[7:11] resources regardless of the wealth and the community that they live in.

[7:16] So keeping that greater tax rates is a level of security, full state support, and maximize

[7:22] resources for students.

[7:24] If local tax effort is not increased to talk about this now three times, by 2029 state funding

[7:30] is lost.

[7:31] And so they're asking local effort incrementally to continue to increase, which is the reality

[7:41] that we're looking at.

[7:42] This is the Strawberry Tech Compact Schedule. There's a copy of this on the back table as well.

[7:47] We'll hit a couple of highlights here.

[7:51] This is a paper that we're going to provide after your reference.

[7:57] Historically, property tax rates were also related rates and are just for the lowest they've ever been.

[8:03] And so many people say, how's that possible? And pay more taxes that I've ever paid, right?

[8:07] So what happens is the tax rate is falling because the tax base is growing, okay?

[8:12] So as the tax base continues to grow, then everybody's tax rate falls, okay?

[8:19] Exit the property revenue is generally held relatively constant when property value is rise, causing it to fall.

[8:26] Additional revenue comes from new growth on a crude tax rate increase.

[8:30] So as our funding stays the same, meaning even as the world happens,

[8:36] which includes students in our buildings.

[8:39] As well, Catholics are a portion of the property taxes,

[8:43] so this portion stays the same,

[8:45] that guaranteed rate stays the same, so to speak.

[8:49] And so as we continue to grow,

[8:51] then the needs of the district continue to grow as well,

[8:54] but the funding stays the same from tax rates.

[8:59] Where do we bring?

[9:01] So here's all the 40 districts in the state of Utah.

[9:05] We collect or we spend what we are the bottom third of what we spend in local money per student.

[9:16] That makes sense.

[9:18] So we can see where the bottom right there, that's the low line, right.

[9:22] So we're ranked third as number 41 visitors in terms of what we spend locally, what we collect locally to spend on students.

[9:29] The district average is about 2000 and we're about 500 below average, based on local money

[9:35] that's collected and then spent for students.

[9:38] So looking at it from our perspective of being physically responsible, we are spending

[9:45] less per student of both tax dollars, so I would say just because I have students in this

[9:51] district and I care about this, there's been no teachers in this district.

[9:54] We are getting a really good thing for our book for what we're sending on kids.

[9:59] Our kids will, our kids perform as well as anybody.

[10:04] Looking at great comparisons,

[10:06] nursing school district has the lowest district tax rate of all in neighboring county school districts.

[10:12] So if you look at school related tax rates,

[10:15] we are the lowest of everybody around us.

[10:17] And that is on that property tax index date as well.

[10:21] If the proposed tax increase passes, Miller School District would be the only

[10:27] neighborhood district with the lower tax rates and they are set to those

[10:30] who choose the taxation next year. So that could change it in and there is an

[10:35] increase. So if you look at all the district's around us, we are by far the lowest.

[10:43] What is this being for you and how does it impact you? I want to be very clear by

[10:48] Again, I'm a taxpayer in this district.

[10:51] I, we understand it is not lost on anybody that attacks

[10:57] increases painful for everybody.

[10:59] And what does this mean for you?

[11:01] For some, it's going to mean not much.

[11:03] Well, for others, it is a hardship.

[11:05] So that's not lost on anybody.

[11:08] But on a $400,000 residence, you're increased your tax

[11:12] increase would be about $87.57 a year,

[11:15] which is about $7.30 a month for those benefits income that is not insignificant so that's something to keep in mind but at the same time as we look at buildings that are aging, as we look at mandates, as we look at the things our students need to be successful in the district

[11:35] It's something to think about for the commercially enacted about $13.26 or $159 per year.

[11:48] Back to the comments.

[11:50] Anybody that would like to provide for the comment of person, you can write your names on the back.

[11:54] If you still would like to, you're given your names on the sheet.

[11:58] You're welcome to come up and address a school board.

[12:02] community members, anybody that's virtually an email, those instructions are in the PowerPoints, and

[12:09] virtual participants when we get to that portion, Bryce will read those comments for us so that the board can hear those comments as well.

[12:22] Odia and Superintendent, just as part of this presentation, I really appreciate,

[12:27] appreciate the Stuart about presenting on this. I see the ground level stuff and with

[12:35] our, what's up going on in the schools. And as we talk about that capital, which is the board has

[12:41] a very difficult decision to make every year how much do we improve for capital expenses

[12:46] and every year it's trimming down, trimming down, trimming down. As you work with me, you guys know

[12:54] And we evaluate every school and see what those highest needs are.

[12:59] Every year we're just taking care of red line items that are the most urgent

[13:04] and not really taking care of other things.

[13:07] And as we've seen, it's been on the stage.

[13:10] 1984, 85, 86, those are great years for our district.

[13:14] We have some great schools built in here.

[13:17] But here we are decades later and things are called on the part.

[13:20] And if you ask Zach, did make it cost us more and more

[13:25] in order for you to continue to keep these

[13:27] buildings running appropriately.

[13:29] You're sitting in a room right now.

[13:30] It doesn't have air conditioning.

[13:32] And this is where we gather together.

[13:34] We have seats.

[13:35] I mean, there just happened to be a walk-in

[13:37] where we're having this meeting here.

[13:38] Look, some of these items really need work.

[13:41] And we're just not able to get to them

[13:42] if some are funding.

[13:43] I'm not just depleting this, but I see the necessity of it.

[13:46] Because when students come to it at a school to learn,

[13:48] They also, they're a vibrant effect and databases.

[13:52] We're making a small, low, incremental dance in it,

[13:55] but that's $650,000 and it will be well-used

[13:59] and for students, I mean, you look at our increase,

[14:02] it's focused on students.

[14:04] It's not on people's salaries.

[14:07] And that's a very important amount.

[14:09] Any time you guys want to go take us to the school

[14:11] and really see the nuts and bolts,

[14:12] what's going on, please contact us and we can go around

[14:15] and we can show you what's going on.

[14:16] We can show you what we're presented with.

[14:18] Well, it's open and open meetings.

[14:20] Every year we improve a capital budget for this.

[14:22] What's out there and what do we need to do

[14:25] and what we are doing.

[14:27] That's all everyone said.

[14:29] They have things I want to say about the student.

[14:32] She's very actively engaged in evaluating our programs.

[14:36] What are we doing in our schools?

[14:37] Where can you save money?

[14:39] She's taking that very seriously in a short time.

[14:41] She's already been here.

[14:42] We put to several programs.

[14:44] We made some hard decisions.

[14:45] It's just really hard to suggest that it affects people, and so it's a challenge, but we are trying to

[14:51] control Venus everywhere we can as well.

[14:54] When you look at some neat things that are going on, like our new auto shop, that was completely

[14:59] funded by our...

[15:00] I mean, we didn't have to put part of any money into that. We have this amazing facility, so we have to sit there and search for these grants to just scrape along. That's my claim, and I really appreciate Mrs. Durham and presenting this information today really kind of at home and what we're going to be using this increase in the future.

[15:21] Well,

[15:27] just a couple of things to add to that.

[15:30] I want you to mention that our schools are 30 to 40 years old.

[15:36] And I mean, look at the federal here.

[15:38] You can see the chairs are falling apart.

[15:41] I want you to mention that our budget for this year is $2.2 million.

[15:47] But we don't even get that one.

[15:50] We don't get $2.2 million.

[15:51] We don't collect that much in taxes or the capital fund.

[15:55] So we're pulling that from our reserves that we've had over the past few years.

[16:03] So even what we're spending, you know, student safety and necessary things,

[16:14] isn't covering what we're collecting from what we're collecting.

[16:17] I mean, Rickie also mentioned that our state guarantee funds are dropping, her make-up

[16:27] that we don't show the local effort last year, our guarantee was $1.2 million, which is

[16:38] a quite novel one of this tax increase that will, you know, if we don't start showing the

[16:44] local effort, we're going to be missing, you know, those stakeholders said that tax and local

[16:53] people just to hold the course. So, with that, they are

[17:06] welcome to have public comment here.

[17:10] The question was, are you going to hold them to two minutes? One of them now started

[17:15] I'm going to hold them to the two-minute limit.

[17:19] Well, we'll try to be reasonable.

[17:22] A three-minute limit?

[17:25] We'd like to hold it to you, three minutes.

[17:28] And if you've got people that are, you know,

[17:31] with a shared concern, then please, you know,

[17:34] maybe get a spokesperson for a lot of people here.

[17:40] All right, Mr. Lewis is here, from Spring City, this first.

[17:46] And hello, friends.

[17:48] Hello, friends.

[17:48] Good to see you, friends.

[17:49] I was like this kind of meeting because I served on boards and sometimes I think it's easy

[17:54] to forget the purpose of the board and at all times you can forever stand, you won't

[17:59] be friends with those.

[18:00] You're really, you guys are really buckstops and there's a couple of philosophical and literal

[18:06] questions that I get to first to start out.

[18:08] First off, if you did not have taxing authority, how would you make up a short problem?

[18:17] You close the school.

[18:19] You close the whole school because you didn't have seven to be.

[18:22] That's some point we would have to at some point, but for 7-50, what would you do?

[18:31] I'm assuming you'd find either A, like any business or any home, you'd find other

[18:35] income sources, or you'd find there is the cut. So my question is, what other activities

[18:41] have you done to draw out a remedy?

[18:46] We've got some, well, I've been wondering if it's in the

[18:50] So grant, so grants, so grants, so grants.

[18:52] There is more head surface.

[18:53] It is one of your destined to be cut.

[18:54] But there wasn't part of the request,

[18:57] but existing budget I'm still being cut.

[19:02] Well initially sorry, sorry, I was going to say

[19:07] I was going to say when you look at what our capital request is,

[19:10] you're talking about a 4 million dollar request,

[19:12] so that we cut that down in 2 million.

[19:14] Which is good, that's good.

[19:15] Yeah.

[19:16] I didn't know you guys were Trump fans

[19:17] That's because that's the RWD on ask for formerly in the United States, so we'll show you how we're going to do.

[19:24] Let me speak to that. Our budget is, if you do not gain a proposed tax increase, we will continue operations as usual.

[19:35] Just mean things will be underfunded. That's the difference.

[19:38] Okay, so you will have schools continue to fail, you'll have things in buildings continue to fail, you'll have maintenance continued, regular maintenance won't happen, correct?

[19:49] So if you look at our proposed budget that the board adopted, these two items, 100,650,000 is not accounted for, right?

[20:00] because you can't assume that you're going to pass the tax increase in more initial

[20:04] budget. So the answer to your question is, buildings will continue to be not

[20:10] maintaining the way that they should be, and they will not have critical

[20:14] curriculum for students and to score literacy and things that are building that these

[20:18] students deserve and students need. So that's the answer to your question.

[20:30] Okay next one so when I moved to 1990 I asked the school board member he did give me the answers but

[20:37] the grog estimated enrollment was 2200 I won't go over a decade but now we're 2706 at the 23% increase in enrollment the budget in

[20:48] In 2020, according to GROC, it was $315 million,

[20:52] the point of $5.35 million, so the estimated

[20:54] rate of bankruptcy in 1990 would have been approximately

[20:58] $12 million.

[21:00] And GROC says that your budget for $425,

[21:04] was $40,000,000.

[21:06] See, they're increasing the enrollment of 23%

[21:10] and overall budget increase of $386% in total dollars.

[21:15] So in my perspective, then I think,

[21:18] Well, when you address this, with regards to the growth of the county, the county's

[21:23] have the growth of 19,000 or 16,000 to 59,000 to 31,000.

[21:28] So for most of our close relatives, this is when we're in a democratic way.

[21:32] And I guess when I look at that, people almost double the total households.

[21:35] Is there a mechanism in your tax base that says you don't get to benefit from new bigger houses

[21:41] being built to keep that same tax percentage?

[21:47] So when you talk about the budget growing, right, and money allocated to the district growing, the reason that I'm telling you the reason why the budget is growing the way that it has is because you now have programs that in 1990 did not exist, right?

[22:00] So you have every year the legislature continues to mandate programs in our buildings, right, summer funded, summer unfunded, right?

[22:08] And so you have programs now that I mean students of course students, you have support services, you have all kinds of things that in the

[22:16] students who have access to these things, and they were also not mandated, right? They're currently mandated, so the district is a

[22:23] district for responsibility to follow the guidance of the justice or education and the legislature whether we want to or not, right?

[22:30] And so those programs continue to take money, some of them were funded, some of them were

[22:35] unfunded.

[22:36] And so when you look at the budget being robust or bigger than it was in the 1990s, the

[22:40] services that are being offered in these buildings also follow that pattern, right?

[22:46] So because my time on that, I appreciate that I'll have Mr. Cook explain it in greater detail

[22:51] when I take the launch of the tickets back then, along those lines.

[22:56] So then, what courses present the middle school, what AI courses would be an honor?

[23:05] There's not a particular AI course.

[23:08] Not a course, but there's curriculum.

[23:10] We'll be diving into it. There are teachers that are using the game within their classroom.

[23:13] And will they be using clouds and hydrogen and hydrogen to be tiered in your program?

[23:17] No, we have school AI is what we've been using recently.

[23:21] Of course, okay. How about my school? Is there a particular AI class?

[23:26] because if we're going to be looking at future, I love automotive because as they ask me,

[23:32] I really bet there's a lot of those good things that we can educate our children for future.

[23:37] But AI is just kind of being there. Do you have anything about it?

[23:40] Same thing.

[23:41] Yeah, it's not great to be into what's going on every day in another particular AI course.

[23:46] And how do you anticipate, or what, if you think about it, your objective is to increase

[23:52] education and when I look at testing with some of the worst math seems to be

[23:58] the worst, we're 76% of the state is ahead of us. How does funding, how does

[24:04] funding type performance visit or is it just we hoping at some of funding is

[24:11] in directly time to that. So if you were open to performance-based payroll?

[24:23] I think

[24:23] We haven't. I mean, obviously when we feel like the teachers are in effect, there are

[24:27] proven plans that we have to go through their state regulations that we have to go through.

[24:31] And obviously, that's happened, and there's a lot of people that don't understand that we have

[24:35] upper rate of report instruction. Okay. How many openings did you have this year

[24:40] for a collaborative teacher level? Teacher level. What do we have?

[24:43] Four. Four times we have periods for those part positions. Oh, we have.

[24:48] A lot this year. So then, so you're going to say

[24:50] Okay, we use a buyer to market or a school district market that's going to be a good

[24:57] instruction.

[24:58] Yeah, so you could, you could hire, you know, we have 30 plus applicants for the most

[25:02] reasonable, so we opened up.

[25:06] Well, I have more, but I'll leave you a copy of mine and then none of this is made to a

[25:10] but it is filled soft and appreciate the question.

[25:26] Next is Ms. Miller from Street Bay.

[25:37] First of all, I wanted to say that I have many questions

[25:40] when I got my tax notice.

[25:42] And I made multiple efforts to contact people in this this week.

[25:47] In everything you set out, there was an email

[25:50] but there was no personal contact information.

[25:53] I did leave a message with Roxy,

[25:56] but I just think if you're gonna tax us,

[25:59] give us an opportunity to find out what's going on.

[26:03] Right on your notice, call these numbers.

[26:06] If you wanna talk about a budget, call this number,

[26:08] this extension, and give us an opportunity

[26:11] to quickly contact you because it hasn't been easy.

[26:14] In fact, somebody that worked in the county

[26:17] actually give me a phone number with an extension and I got a voice mail saying

[26:21] they were unavailable for like three or four days so I mean be available if

[26:27] you're gonna do this be available for the public and then the next thing I want

[26:31] to say is when we take money from a state or a federal government there's usually

[26:40] bought some strings with that money, and sometimes those strings don't benefit us, but we have

[26:47] to comply because we're taking their money. I know years ago I worked in a project and

[26:54] we wanted to improve something, and we looked at a federal grant, or federal money. And

[27:02] when I put all the numbers together, taking that money looked like a really good deal, but

[27:07] But it would have cost us more in the long run to take that money.

[27:13] So we decided to just go with local funding.

[27:16] And so what streams are attached to taking that safe money?

[27:22] And is it really costing us things that we don't care about or

[27:25] don't leave here?

[27:27] And then another thing we used to vote when a school district

[27:32] would increase the taxes or go for a bond.

[27:35] We don't seem to have that opportunity to vote on these things anymore, and I'm not sure

[27:40] I didn't have time to research it, but why can't we vote on tax increases?

[27:46] That seems like it should go out to the public and be a vote because tax increases affect

[27:54] many lives, and as they'll point it out, we have probably more senior citizens that are

[28:01] are paying taxes to support schools.

[28:04] They never have kids in this school.

[28:06] I mean, there's some balances here

[28:08] that I don't think you could rest.

[28:10] And they probably need to be addressed.

[28:14] And then another issue I have is when you bond,

[28:20] that bond is paid off in a certain amount of time,

[28:24] we never get a tax decrease.

[28:27] If we, a citizen's being good faith,

[28:29] help pay off a bond when it's retired we should expect to have those taxes lowered and I'm not

[28:37] talking about states funding to get more money because that's all tied to politics it's all

[28:45] tied to control to control the public perception and we want some honest answers here of what you're

[28:52] doing with that money because time is hard for everybody,

[28:56] not just Bill Desiree.

[28:58] There's probably as many homes in this county

[29:01] that need repairs as there are school district buildings

[29:05] that need repair.

[29:06] We do not have a wealthy population,

[29:09] but I am paying higher taxes on my property

[29:14] than people in sage George who have much higher incomes.

[29:18] And so, I don't care about all your tables and how you prove what you deserve.

[29:26] We can manipulate money, we can manipulate perception, and we just need to take a good

[29:32] honest look at how we're affecting people, and they'll point it out very correctly that

[29:38] we have a smaller increase in students than we have tax base.

[29:44] so something seems to be up here and I think it's time we search for different

[29:49] reverence rather than just hitting the public. Thank you.

[30:04] Let me just answer a few of those questions. So we got to, do we get to vote on the increase? No. You get to vote on the poll when we do billability. Those are usually big, big expenses.

[30:22] The last poll we had was in 2012 and it's said to be retired in 2032.

[30:32] I think I can't answer that.

[30:33] Because there's also, you know, you've got more of a subject to add old schools.

[30:38] We clearly added a few times.

[30:41] I don't know what the population is going to do it in the next little bit.

[30:57] Well, and then, you know, to talk about taxes.

[31:02] We're at a tricky point in health.

[31:03] We are one of a

[31:08] cost per student.

[31:10] And we're at the lowest tax rate.

[31:13] We're at a minimum distance distance.

[31:16] So, maybe for your what-quies, you're getting a better payment for your bucket or a centipede

[31:21] than you are in any of our neighborhood districts.

[31:30] Actually, it's all for dollar.

[31:33] Strings for the state, you know, we talk about a couple things, you know, grants, we got

[31:40] a grant for that building, and now we need to supply a teacher, but we think about it as

[31:49] in order that we can teach kids new things.

[31:53] State money is more of an equalization.

[31:57] We're not taking state money

[31:58] with strings attached to it.

[32:00] State money so that our kids

[32:02] have the same opportunities as some of the other kids.

[32:08] And I would add that the strings

[32:10] from this state usually come with or without the money.

[32:14] We get lots of strings, but not with the strings.

[32:46] I

[32:58] just want to tell you that it is not lost on me what a tremendous opportunity it is

[33:05] to be able to come in and sit down and talk to each of you.

[33:09] I mean, I know you all, I mean, my first name basis, most of you, and that's not overlooked by me, and thank you for what you do.

[33:18] I appreciate the comments that have been made prior. This is another Mr. Lewis.

[33:24] I hope that you sincerely look into those questions. There's a long time spent in looking at that.

[33:33] You've come to us and you've asked us to give a little more money, right?

[33:40] Which means that I have to go home and even though it's just a little, I still have to

[33:45] revise my spending habit, right, to be able to spend and to come up with that extra money.

[33:51] Now, really, that's the best presentation I've ever heard on spending and the dynamics

[33:59] of the situation. It was a sink. It was understandable to the point. Thank you. I'm not against funding

[34:06] education for getting sick. It's paid my living for 45 years. But I have seen a number of changes

[34:13] over the years in public education. Some of them are good. Some over there are not so good. If we go

[34:20] back to when was it? In 1991, whenever there was no child left behind, federal government got

[34:28] have heavily involved in education.

[34:30] I see absolutely nothing good for those changes.

[34:39] As you're asking me to do, I would ask the same review,

[34:43] and Ricky and I had a good talk before the meeting.

[34:46] Please take an in-depth look at what money's going.

[34:51] Last time I was here, one of the principals said,

[34:53] I cannot possibly do what I'm doing with any less money.

[34:57] I don't doubt that.

[34:59] I don't doubt that in the least.

[35:01] But what it means in my world is if I can't afford to do what I'm doing, I can't continue

[35:07] to do what I'm doing, I've got to take an in-depth look.

[35:11] And some of those things are hard, and people are going to be hurt, and they're going to

[35:15] be feelings.

[35:16] And it's going to require a lot of effort in an open mind, a big heart, a strong spirit.

[35:23] But I would just ask you to do that.

[35:28] Again, thank you for your time.

[35:33] I would be honest.

[35:35] When I say that I think there's a lot of fluff in public education in general.

[35:42] Been in enough schools over 45 years to have seen that.

[35:47] But it's not something that we can't turn around.

[35:50] We can't change it.

[35:51] we can make things better, we can make things different.

[35:56] Get rid of the minutiae, the teachers you're being asked to do.

[36:00] Higher good people, let them go into the classroom

[36:03] and teach a group of students.

[36:05] They don't need people to tell them how to coach or how to teach.

[36:09] If they do, then we provide us a little help.

[36:12] But give them time and resources, take away the other stuff

[36:18] that they're being asked to do.

[36:22] thank you for what you're doing. I hope you look at and take a hard look at this, you know, how we did this year ago, and public info was overwhelmingly against attacks increase, you voted for attacks increase, I'm going to wish you that I'm not going to ask you why don't we need to explain it to me, but I hope you take a hard look at that, and you know, you have a difficult job.

[36:50] because you're here to run schools and you want kids to come out of these schools

[36:55] the best that they can as successful as they can and yet you have public or say

[37:03] man we can't give you more money you know it's tough good luck thank you for

[37:09] what you do appreciate it and who can be new to see me in here for me this

[37:20] is

[37:37] kind of

[37:37] for me and out of colds, hopefully nobody catches that. A few questions.

[37:47] I was late

[37:48] for your introduction and I thought I heard you say that some districts do not

[37:53] receive state money. Is that correct?

[37:59] Yes, so there are three districts in the state currently that don't receive any state money

[38:03] because their local efforts are passing in and in the state of the guarantee. So Park City

[38:07] an example. Part C school districts, their local tax revenue generates enough money,

[38:12] but they don't qualify for state money.

[38:14] I see.

[38:15] And so when you have the list up there of the districts waiting on the lowest bias and

[38:21] we were way up there at the lowest, I might to assume that the ones that have higher tax rates

[38:28] are the ones that don't need the state money.

[38:32] Not necessarily, so the sliding scale in terms of funding may receive depending on their

[38:37] local effort. Again, so the more local effort that a district has, the more

[38:42] property tax they collect based upon the values in their community, the less

[38:46] say our guarantee for the state match. So it's basically the lobby

[38:50] provision, meaning the state recognizes that not all communities have the same

[38:54] taxing power based on property values, and so the state wants to be fair and

[39:00] equitable across all students, no matter what community they live in, should have

[39:04] have the same ability to be funded, right?

[39:08] And so if there's a district that cannot,

[39:11] just based on the value of property tax

[39:13] in their area, then the state makes up the difference

[39:15] for that.

[39:16] So Park City is a prime example.

[39:18] They're property tax, right?

[39:20] The property balance in Park City are high enough

[39:22] that they are funded completely with local efforts.

[39:26] So they don't get any state money in tax to it, right?

[39:29] And when you talk about strings attached to whatever it might be,

[39:31] The state doesn't make this money to be used under the ability of a local board, right?

[39:38] And so when the state makes up that guarantee payment, that short call, depending on the district,

[39:45] and there are no streets attached, it is under the direction of the local school board to decide how to make a spend.

[39:54] Okay.

[39:55] And can I assume that out of those three districts that don't take money, they're like part city.

[40:05] And the third one was so much more so my school district, yeah, and those are all based on property values in those countless areas.

[40:16] Yeah, they're high tax, high value properties.

[40:25] As

[40:29] I heard people talk, I wondered about alternatives, what are our options other than

[40:37] taxes.

[40:41] Some years ago, and anyway, there were some citizens in Marona and I, we got together

[40:48] I'm trying to see if there was some way to improve how we

[40:57] receive our funding and how we organize it.

[41:00] We looked into some charter schools in the state,

[41:07] advantages and disadvantages.

[41:09] I don't know if that's something that's

[41:12] a real viable option.

[41:14] school, back there in the steam liable, maybe again we don't have the tax tax that you

[41:24] would have like in Park City or under school districts.

[41:28] So charter schools actually do not have any local effort in terms of their funding.

[41:33] They are solely relying upon state funding, so that's a different conversation, right?

[41:40] So it actually takes money from local school districts and charter schools, it's been a topic

[41:46] debated on the Hill every legislative session about where that money's going, charter schools

[41:51] actually don't collect property tax, right, which means the pie that we speak of with

[41:57] this money from public education is with differently meaning local districts that rely upon the

[42:05] And so these charter schools have actually worked, and I'm not hard to integrate charter schools.

[42:13] I would say my kids are in public school and I'm a public school child.

[42:17] And my child's public school experience rises out of any charter school I would say.

[42:23] And I'm incredibly proud of this district and what they've done for the children of this district.

[42:28] So I'm obviously having an experience with charter schools, but I do know for funding aspect,

[42:33] there is no local tax efforts for charter schools.

[42:37] It is all safe under which it takes a piece of the pie from local schools.

[42:46] Okay, only

[42:50] other thing was just the inflation itself.

[42:54] I know that simplistically, I'm not CPA or anything, but when I look at my taxes,

[43:02] As I see what the assessor's office does in valuating my property and so on, and then

[43:13] you have a tax rate which, again, they're going to determine what part of it's taxable.

[43:19] And I see an increase every year just because of inflation, is that fair or not fair.

[43:26] I mean, it seems like my taxes are going up just because of inflation even if there

[43:31] ain't no change.

[43:32] Well, there's a couple of things under taxes.

[43:35] So, as the value of your home increases, your waiting to actually goes down.

[43:42] That's where you have to have these troops in taxation areas.

[43:47] The school district is only one part of your total property taxes also.

[43:52] So your taxes may be going up because of the city you're located in, the water district,

[43:59] the county, the landfills, there's a variety of reasons it can go up because everybody has to tag.

[44:07] All of these different entities have to tax and it's based on property.

[44:14] But it's a state law that has the value of your home's increase, the rate has to decrease

[44:23] so that the money going to reach entity remains the same.

[44:31] And so the rate actually goes down if the price is very low, the value of the home's.

[44:42] That's your inflation point as well.

[44:44] So, when you think about services provided at school, inflation affects you and I, or

[44:49] free-store inflation affects the gas pump, inflation also affects our ability to feed kids,

[44:54] right?

[44:54] Inflation affects our ability to maintain buildings because it costs more to do those

[44:58] things.

[44:58] So yeah.

[45:00] So we're transporting students, inflation affects the ability to put fuel in buses, and the ability to purchase buses. And so inflation affects the school district actively, just like the effects of our households. And so some districts, and as we've talked about street contact, some districts that I've talked to other residents in the street are superintendents. They actually do true contact, they should just to cover inflation costs in their district. They're not doing any improvements. They're not doing, they're feeding kids.

[45:28] is they are providing transportation for students.

[45:32] So it's not an improvement that's just to keep up

[45:34] with the cost of inflation in terms

[45:36] of what they're paying to educate students.

[45:45] Miss Taylor, for a moment.

[46:00] Thank you for this opportunity and to meet with you.

[46:04] You're looking at a woman who has been in the school

[46:07] this week now, this is in town,

[46:09] that has turned in self-solving.

[46:13] For over 20 years, three of those years

[46:18] The last three years of my employment was in the district offices and I saw that flush

[46:28] over millions of dollars spent unwisely, totally imperfect and yet as of the public cannot

[46:42] say one word,

[46:48] that's the facts of life I lived with. And I know that because when I opened

[46:55] up a school in 1998, in which shortment was called open, it was elementary, I had 1200

[47:06] students from kindergarten to sixth grade,

[47:11] and those now the day on the website they have

[47:13] six hundred and twenty-seven students. I don't know what. Yeah, the education we received

[47:21] and I'm an orthographic graduate every

[47:28] year for our classrooms. It's amazing how many

[47:32] students that live here and that doesn't do a lot of it at 10. Not once. But the feeling

[47:38] that you are working with needs, your input, but it also means asking your citizens

[47:46] that are going to be paying for the maintenance you're going to have, the groundwork, the buses,

[47:55] everything that you are looking at needs, my approval, their approval, as well as yours.

[48:05] So this woman who's raised it, yes.

[48:09] Our taxes most of us are in that 50 to 70 to 80, 90 years of age.

[48:15] You don't have kids anymore.

[48:17] You don't have no school.

[48:19] They're all volunteers, they're all children.

[48:22] But remember, when you look at budget,

[48:26] you look at my budget and you look at your budget,

[48:29] just the same way.

[48:31] Are you going to go in and tap and increase your income

[48:35] by getting another job because you can't possibly afford to live in where you're living?

[48:43] That's what you're asking the public to do.

[48:45] with this increase is $4 million.

[48:50] A lot of us have moved back home.

[48:52] I'm in the same home.

[48:54] I'm this born-in race-in, and I do not see the property taxes

[49:00] that I pay, that pay for all of you

[49:03] who are trying to do here in this school district.

[49:07] And this district, and all for it,

[49:09] and yes, you're doing a great job.

[49:11] You are literally, these numbers are correct.

[49:15] You're doing a great job.

[49:16] Thank you, as you admit, $4 million is not a lot of money, and I've seen a lot of it go to waste.

[49:28] We had to keep track of everything we bought there for a second, for $4 million.

[49:33] The

[49:37] $4 million number is three pairs, and the numbers are being requested at the school.

[49:43] The tax increase is only $750,000.

[49:46] Just just wanted to clarify that in the case.

[49:49] I'm just looking at your notes here, that's the shortfall.

[49:54] So up here is what we're asking for, the 750 total, the shortfall for what we actually

[50:01] need to do.

[50:02] The 4 million is what needs to be done.

[50:04] There was only a budget amount of 2 million to cover that, so we're actually 2 million

[50:08] short, but we're only requesting 650,000.

[50:13] Thank you.

[50:22] No, there's no comments on that.

[50:26] Two.

[50:36] That was everybody who had, thank you for coming.

[50:40] Thank you for coming to the world.

[50:44] Again, we don't take any of this lightly.

[50:46] We're the taxpayers here ourselves.

[50:51] Again, I want to reiterate that the

[50:56] ban for the bulk of its

[50:57] dollars versus in the other districts where in the top third right now we're in

[51:06] lowest rate of anywhere in the districts and I think we're in the top 10 of

[51:15] the lowest districts overall out of 40 higher districts now it can stay so

[51:35] we'll close

[51:36] the hearing portion of this.

[51:43] I apologize earlier. I said we had to close the schools. I thought

[51:46] Dale, we could click any taxes. So just click if I have to.

[51:55] So next night, let me

[51:57] agenda as a motion to approve or the doctor for the tax. We can do it tonight. We can do it next

[52:06] week and are meeting with a chance to talk about much. I

[52:17] had asked personal additional numbers.

[52:47] So

[52:51] you have the invention of the book most over the day.

[53:08] Let's table it till next week.

[53:10] I got a question for Christie.

[53:12] How did you get a half mill for our district?

[53:14] What did you do?

[53:14] How hard was it for the school project the grant that you received that you got for us?

[53:21] We were talking about the facility improvement.

[53:24] Yes.

[53:25] That was all right.

[53:26] It was a cruise to the legislature.

[53:28] It was a grant provided.

[53:30] It was, I mean, all together.

[53:32] That's why I put the grant and received the grant.

[53:35] But we didn't have to follow that or the parameters.

[53:37] We had to be at the model world this year.

[53:40] So we followed by to be able to apply for the grant.

[53:44] We applied for the grant.

[53:45] We applied for the grant.

[53:45] We are.

[53:45] In my experience, over the last several years, there's this more, there's a round of opportunities.

[53:53] It's often, there's a lot of needs that's turned to a tiny rack and then, it opens the rack

[54:00] and it's like, because we were awarded that.

[54:03] Thank you.

[54:05] And that is the dollar for dollar matching grant, meaning the district has to come with the other hand.

[54:10] So if you're awarding the grant, I have a district that does have to come, but I don't know for $1.

[54:17] I didn't think I'd do anything about the national grant, but it was a straight grant.

[54:20] It was really under the line.

[54:23] You have to show that for us as well.

[54:25] Thank

[54:29] you most certainly for postponing the decision on the tax rate until our meeting next week.

[54:40] which will be held at the district office at this point.

[54:48] So next week August 18th, 6 o'clock,

[54:53] the district office was just west of here,

[54:56] unless we filled up any room

[54:58] within the company here.

[55:02] So I think I'm ocean.

[55:05] I think I'm just a gobble of the payment.

[55:07] Hi.

[55:10] Mr. Radson, we'll do a roll call vote.

[55:13] Okay, Mr. Radson?

[55:15] Yes.

[55:16] Mr. Gobble?

[55:16] Yes, Mr. Cook?

[55:17] Yes.

[55:17] Okay,

[55:23] we'll also bring the decision and the notion of the final budget next week as well.

[55:32] So,

[55:38] we don't know if that's going to happen.

[55:42] Do

[55:50] you want to tell them where the meeting will be in just a minute?

[55:57] And I said this district office, so district office

[56:03] for now, we should see something, and then we'll certainly

[56:07] post it in the morning.

[56:09] We'll put it out this afternoon.

[56:13] Sure, it should be in the morning.

[56:17] All right.

[56:18] With that, I think we can adjourn the meeting.

[56:25] I second.

[56:25] I'll make the motion, but I'm going to move.

[56:28] All right, motion, but Mr. Madison, second,

[56:30] I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

[56:32] I'm sorry.

[56:34] Thank you.

[56:36] Thank you.

North Sanpete School District Truth in Taxation Hearing

Transcript