Tentative Levy set at 4.94%; Tax Levy hearing to be held in December

School district’s audit was presented and approved

By ARIANA R. CHERRY
Staff Writer

Members of the school board met at the Atwood Grade School at their most recent school board meeting held November 17. Superintendent Cheek reported that some of their bills were a bit larger than usual – one of the reasons being that they had both bond payments and interest that needed to be paid. There was nothing new to report in the Treasurer’s Report, but Cheek did state that the district received a payment from Transportation, although it was the first one that they had received for this calendar year.

The audit for the calendar year through June 30, 2021 was presented. The district received financial recognition with a 3.9 Financial Score. Financial Recognition is the highest level in the financial finding process. This recognition was also received in last year’s audit. In the Treasurer’s Bond Finding, there were no bank accounts overdrawing the shares and balances were being kept where they needed to be. The district’s debt was a total of $2.89 million dollars. COVID did have an effect in some parts of the audit such as attendance, which was mainly because of many students having to quarantine or doing remote learning during the last school year. The 305 school district attendance was down 86 students. The auditor mentioned that in most of the reports they did, these figures were all over the board for many school districts.

Superintendent Cheek’s Administrative Assistant, Haley McGrath received many compliments from both the auditor and Cheek for her hard work and efficiency. The auditor said that Haley was really good and very efficient and always turned things in as soon as they were asked for – “Doing this helped with the audit and kept things rolling.” After completing the audit review, board members approved the audit.

After the audit review, Cheek presented information on this year’s Tax Levy (the amount of money that a school district requests in order to operate for the upcoming year). “The levy is similar to last year, not much has changed,” he said. Cheek also presented some information about the levy and how it is calculated. “We don’t know what our EAV is until the levy is submitted. A formula is established by school code and it’s created by a calculation that considers the previous tax rate, EAV of the properties within the district and the anticipated new growth of properties in the district,” he explained. This year’s proposed aggregate levy current is set at 4.94% which will not require a taxation hearing. A tax levy hearing will be held at the school board meeting in December.

After discussing the tax levy, the latest COVID statistics were presented. A total of 409 students have been tested “in-house” (in the school district, as they have access to their own rapid testing kids), with 40 of those tests being positive. During the time of the school board meeting on November 17, six students were currently positive and 23 were quarantined. There have been a total of 14 staff members who have tested positive. “The teachers, staff, admin and tracing team – everyone is doing their due diligence and they are doing a good job,” Cheek complimented.

At the end of the board meeting, Cheek wanted to give recognition and celebrate staff members who had an integral role in doing various tasks . “I’d like to recognize Haley for preparing the audit, the hours she spent preparing it and the additional hours of follow up. She gathered all the information and made it as easy as she possibly could. That is not an easy task and the timelines that she was put under to provide things are small. That was usually by the next day,” Cheek stated.

“I’d also like to recognize the facilities team and all the work they have done up to this point. Also, the district secretaries and those on our front line. There are countless stories they could probably write and several books through all of this “COVID we are experiencing” and handling all the complaints. I appreciate them,” noted Cheek. “I’d also like to recognize the admin team with all of the activities gearing up and all the extra curriculars. There’s a different level of monitoring that comes with that. They are doing a great job dealing with it. It is appreciated,” he complimented.

“There has been a lot of community engagement in the facilities process. So far in our first meeting, we have had about 40. I think we will continue to see this grow and I think we are generating excitement about it,” Cheek said happily.

Personnel Report

November 17, 2021

Certified: None

Non-Certified:

Recommend for hire, James Dean for custodian position.

Extra-Curricular:

Recommend for hire, Mike Nall to serve as a volunteer assistant for the boys HS basketball team

Recommend for hire, Jonathan Parsons to serve as HS Assistant Boys Basketball Coach.

Accept Jessica Vanausdoll letter of resignation from JH Assistant Volleyball coach.

Accept Jennifer Schrock letter of resignation from JH Head Volleyball coach.

Recommend for hire Jessica Vanausdoll as JH Head Volleyball coach.

Recommend for hire Jennifer Schrock as JH Assistant Volleyball coach.