Central Lee levy comes in under projection

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BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC EDITOR

DONNELLSON - Central Lee has some good news for tax payers.

At Monday's regular meeting of the Central Lee Community School District Board of Directors, the board approved the 2020-21 fiscal year budget with a residential property tax rate of $11.32/$1,000 assessed valuation.

The rate is 87 cents lower than a limit the district had relayed to voters as part of the recently passed $13 million bond referendum to upgrade the district campus near Donnellson.

Superintendent Dr. Andy Crozier said the district told voters the bond would not go over a $12.19 ceiling during the lifespan of the bond, which currently is 20 years.

"There was another increase in valuations in the district and that helped that levy go down. If the levy does start to creep up in coming years, we can use our sales tax revenues to offset some of that," Crozier said.

The district had initially told voters the debt service on the bond would be $2.70/$1,000 assessed valuation, but favorable bond bids brought that number to $2.54 as part of the $11.32 overall levy in the upcoming budget. Crozier said it is likely that figure will drop to $2.40 for the following years.

"Whenever you lower the property tax rates no one comes out of the woodwork with complaints," Crozier said. "People should be pleased considering we passed a bond and told them the tax rate would be stable, and actually it's going down. So hopefully we can continue this trend."

The funds will provide renovations and common space for easier flow of students through the hallways, a new competition/performance gymnasium, two new rooms for fine arts, renovations of the K-8 building for a new early childhood center, and improved parking and traffic flow on the campus.

Because of the favorable bond market and a premium that was extended to the district by investors, Crozier said there is room for some additional paving to be done as part of the campus upgrade.

Jones Contracting of West Point was awarded the contract for paving upgrades. Estimates for that work were $285,000, but Jones came in at $192,700.

"Obviously everything has come together nicely and it only makes sense to do this now, but it also makes sense to do this under the bond budget," Crozier told the board.

Crozier recommended additional paving adjacent to the new bus parking lot, plus a sidewalk that would run around the parking circle that would connect the K-8 to the High School as well as paving the area near the current propane tank which will be moved to increase parking capacity in the K-8 lot.

"Honestly, I didn't expect the bid to be so competitive and didn't want to waste peoples time proposing projects I didn't think were possible two months ago," Crozier said about not including the work in the original proposals.

Board President Mark Hulsebus said the district has been working on improving the campus paving for the past five years and this could help get a lot of those projects out of the way.

Crozier said additional paving that the district should consider in the future would be repairs to the main parking lot and the area between the shop and the softball fields has quite a bit of traffic. He also said said the staff parking lot on the west side of the campus could use expanding as it serves as a spill over for events.

In an unrelated issue, the board voted to continue to pay hourly non certified staff their current base wages. Crozier said pushing those employees to a furlough or unemployment status could jeopardize future funding.

He said the CARES Act has specific language in it that says school districts that move employees to unemployment or furlough may be ineligible for funding.

"It specifically states schools may be ineligible for funding from the CARES Act if they force employees onto unemployment. They consider that double dipping if you went down that road of not paying them, but keeping funding," Crozier said.

He said Iowa doesn't have that specific language, but after about a dozen meetings with state officials and attorneys most recommendations have been to pay the employees.

"Our legislature hasn't come out and said one way or the other, but I feel the same thing applies," Crozier said. "We've already received funding. If you furlough and then keep that funding, you're double dipping so we decided let's pay people our normal wages for the time being."

In other action, the board:
• rejected two proposals for repositories for the bond funds. Crozier said rebidding with some additional requirements may result in better savings for the district. Repositories hold the bond funds for the district and charge a fee for the service.
• approved tentative plans for a 2021 trip for the high school Spanish class to Belise.
• approved a music teacher share program with Keokuk.
• approved a sharing agreement for swimming with Burlington Community School District.
• accepted the resignation of high school football coach Nick Ehret effective immediately.

Board of Directors, budget, Central Lee Community School District, fiscal year, Pen City Current

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