MANDATA - In order to balance their 2011-2012 budget, the Line Mountain School District is looking to eliminate 13 positions, including the athletic director and assistant high school principal and raise taxes more than 10 mills.
That was the message Tuesday evening when the board approved its $16.6 million proposed final budget at the district's board meeting. The tax increase is expected to raise approximately $737,630. With the teacher cuts, tax increases and administrative pay freezes, it all but eliminates a $1.3 million deficit the board faced at the start of the meeting.
According to paperwork given to board members before the meeting, the 2011-2012 budget had revenue of $15,963,049 after figuring a 1.2 mill tax increase for the tax index there, with expenditures of $17,282,320.
Before the budget was discussed, the board voted on resolutions for, as superintendent David Campbell called them, the notice to intend to furlough the positions.
"Two weeks ago, when we met on the budget, we said that eliminating 13 people was the worst case scenario, but we were keeping our eye on, and continue to keep our eye on, the state and what they do with their budget," Campbell said. "It hasn't come yet, so we are forced with this."
The biggest positions to go will be the elimination of the jobs of Assistant High School Principal and Coordinator of Student Athletics and Activities. The assistant principal, Carl Krause, would then be demoted to a social studies teacher. Lance Adams, the current athletic coordinator, would be furloughed.
The other cuts were reported as follows: Six elementary teachers, two art teachers, two physical education teachers, a music teacher position and an elementary computer teacher position.
In the agenda sent out before the meeting, only Adams' position was scheduled to be voted on, but an addendum was added later that night. Campbell said that the district needed the Department of Education's approval before making the resolutions, which came at 11:47 a.m.
The superintendent said that the decision in which teachers were furloughed was strictly based on seniority, and that those furloughs can be reversed up to the first day of school in August.
In addition Campbell, business manager Philip Rapant, and all district administrators have accepted pay freezes for the coming school year.
All total, the position cuts, and salary freezes will save the district approximately $854,992. Combine that with the tax increase, which raised the tax rate from 64 mills to 74.64 mills, and only $17,841 separates them from having a balanced budget, which they hope to have before the board's next meeting on June 28.
The tax increase will raise the average taxpayer's bill $137 more based on an average property value of $12,905.
The votes for both the resolutions and budget were 8-1 with members Troy Laudenslager, Dennis Erdman, Lawrence Neidig, David Bartholomew, Bryan Buddock, Denise Clouser, Lauren Hackenburg and Lamont Masser voting yes, and Charles Sample casting the lone dissenting vote.
Sample voted no to cutting teachers due to, he felt, not enough discussion being made to cuts activities in the district. The vote against the budget was based strictly against the tax increase.
"When people move into the district, they are buying their property at market value and being taxed on that. This big of a tax increase not only is going to keep people away, but is the beginning of the end for the district," Sample said.
In other business, the board reappointed member Lawrence Neidig as the board treasurer for the coming school year. Neidig accepted the nomination, only if he could forgo his salary of $500 for the job.