Trion School Board Discusses Possibility Of SPLOST Extension
Trion School Superintendent Phil Williams told the Trion School Board Monday at its regular monthly meeting that the Chattooga School Board would discuss the continuation of the E-SPLOST at its meeting today (Thursday) and the Trion board should begin to think about what they would want to do with the money if approved by the Chattooga board and the Trion board approved it next month.
“Jared Hosmer called and told me that the E-SPLOST was going to be on their agenda Thursday night at its meeting for discussion,” Supt. Williams said. “Basically, what will happen is a guy named Bill Camp will be there and talk with the board about the E-SPLOST renewal.”
Supt. Williams said that the Chattooga County board has to initiate the SPLOST renewal.
“Once they initiate it and it is approved by their board, we will get on board with them,” the superintendent continued. “It is going to be brought up and I didn’t want anyone caught off-guard when I’m sure Gene (Espy) will be reporting on it.”
“Do we need to look at what we are going to do with the money?” Board Chairman Randy Henderson asked.
“The first thing is they have to approve it,” Supt. Williams said.
They have to have the renewal, or it has to be paid out of property taxes what they are paying off the system’s debts and they have bonds to pay off.
“If people truly care about education that will compete with other places, that one penny sales tax is the most fair,” Supt. Williams added. “That is not even debatable, and everybody has to pay. It is a tax that the property owners are not just responsible for, it is everybody.”
He added that the Trion board will have to be clear and concise explaining what they use the sales tax revenues for and what we intend to spend the SPLOST money for.
“It is not a new tax, it is a continuation of what we have,” he added. “Go up there and look at our facilities and think about what our facilities looked like before we could get SPLOST money.”
He ended saying there were a lot of things they need, especially technology.
FINANCIAL REPORTS
* The board approved the system Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) report for September 30. The balance as of Sept. 30 was $610,102.25.
* Approved the system General Fund Obligation Bond Series (2016) report. After buying a 2019 Ford Crew Cab truck on Sept. 6 and paying $30,565.24, the fund’s balance was $114,150.71.
* The board approved the financial reports for June and July at the meeting.
The July report showed with 8.33 percent of the fiscal year completed, the system has received 7.43 percent of its anticipated revenues had made 8.40 percent of its budgeted expenditures. The fund balance was $3,306,599.55 of that number, $1-million is assigned for capital projects.
OTHER BUSINESS
In other business, the board:
* Looked at the Bulldog Athletic Club financial report;
* Looked at the Band Boosters financial report;
* Looked at the system enrollment report;
* Discussed the Georgia School Board Association Winter Conference Dec. 4-6;
* Approved a fundraising project;
* Approved FCCLA overnight field trips requests.
PERSONNEL
In personnel action, the board:
* Approved the resignation of LeAnn Brown as a special education paraprofessional;
* Approved the resignation of Linda Young as a parent mentor;
* Approved the employment of Loren Gibson as a food service employee;
* Approved the employment of Angeline McDowell as a food service employee;
* Approve the employment of Nancy Bailey as a food service employee;
* Approved the employment of Latasha Young as a substitute food service and substitute teacher;
* Approved Brenda Young as a substitute custodian;
* Approved the employment of Courtney Spraggins, Samantha Rosser, Julia Maddux and Autumn Baggett as substitute teachers.