It is hard to imagine a more poignant “sign-of-the-times” development than what came out of Monday night’s meeting of the Bluffton Harrison Metropolitan School District board.
With a number of controls and the constitutional limits of property taxation, school districts have built-in limitations on what they can raise for their operating budgets. When school districts determine they need more funds for non-capital needs, they can request additional funding via a referendum with the voters.
Southern Wells Community Schools has been depending upon such an ongoing approval from its patrons for them to pay a little extra for a number of years. It goes into the school’s general fund, giving the small school system enough resources to pay competitive wages and fund other operating needs. A renewal of that referendum was approved in the most recent election.
Now comes BHMSD with the consideration of asking the taxpayers in Harrison Township, which includes much of the city of Bluffton, of paying a little bit more in property taxes to support … school safety.
Unfortunately, few, if any, need to be informed as to why this might be necessary. The past few weeks — months, and indeed years — has brought an increasingly frequent news of some kind of shooting, the most recently egregious instance in a Nashville school.
As reported in our Tuesday edition, Superintendent Brad Yates’ proposal would ask the taxpayers to approve an additional $420,000 over an eight year period. That would fund a school resource officer in each of the district’s three schools (there is currently just the one SRO based at the high school) and a district mental health counselor. The proposal also includes additional services for expelled students and would upgrade the schools’ safety systems and visitor management system.
Estimating the impact this will have on property taxes is a best-guess scenario. As we all have learned, property taxes are complicated. However, it can be determined what impact the proposal would have on this year’s formulae.
The median assessed value of a single-family owner-occupied residence in the school district is $139,800. If this referendum had been in place this year, that median home’s tax bill would be about $48 higher — about $4 per month. For rental properties and farmland, the increase would be about $7 a month on each $100,000 of assessed value. Note that those figures were based on a convenient round figure of $500,000 for the tax impact study. A simple math conversion of the formula for the actual $420,000 proposal lands it closer to $3.25 per month for the residential property and less than $6 a month for farmland and rental properties.
Yates describes this as an “unfortunate and somber conversation.” These are, indeed, somber times.
Something I learned in this process was the school system’s options for expelled students.
“We want all of our students to be successful,” Yates says, “even if they’ve stubbed their toe.”
The current options offer online components that give these young people the opportunity to still earn a diploma. This funding would enhance that by adding some accountability — some guidance.
The school system has had a mental health counselor the past year or two, funded by a grant. Grants expire. The proposal would make that a permanent position.
So how important is the safety of our students? The process is deliberative. When Yates introduced the proposal that has been under study and formulation for several months, he told his board that he did not want a decision Monday evening. Give it some thought. Seek community input. If you live in Harrison Township, whether you are a landowner or not, that means you.
If the board approves the proposal, it would then be on the November ballot. The voters will ultimately decide.
Somber issues and somber decisions. It’s a sign of our times.
miller@news-banner.com
