Three candidates are running for two seats on the Oak Ridge Board of Education, including incumbents Angi Agle, left, and Keys Fillauer, right, and challenger Leonard Abbatiello.
The standoff between municipal and school officials over debt payments for the $66 million renovation of Oak Ridge High School has been revived in this fall’s campaign.
The public debate had been largely dormant since May, when the Oak Ridge City Council voted to withhold about $766,000 from the school system until education officials transfer revenues raised under an Anderson County sales tax increase approved in 2006.
In recent forums, former Oak Ridge City Council Leonard Abbatiello accused the current five-member Oak Ridge Board of Education of defaulting on the high school loan payments.
“They did that, in June, voluntarily, without a vote,†Abbatiello said. “This breach of trust is one that we cannot tolerate.â€
But Angi Agle, one of the two incumbents running for re-election to the school board in the Nov. 6 election, challenged Abbatiello’s allegation that the school board has defaulted. The school board doesn’t borrow money, Agle said.
Oak Ridge officials said last week that the city has not defaulted on the loan.
“I’m not going to risk our credit rating,†Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson said. “We’re making sure that the payments are made.â€
However, municipal officials said the school system is past due on what it owes to the city. They said the city has used reserves to make up a shortfall of between $200,000 and $250,000.
The disagreement between the city government and school system is over new revenues generated by a 2006 sales tax increase in Anderson County. School officials have argued they can keep that part of the new sales tax revenues that are collected outside Oak Ridge. Until recently, all the new money, including revenues collected outside the city, were used for high school debt payments.
But city officials said the 2006 county sales tax increase essentially took away money from the city. They cite a 2005 financial plan to argue that all the new county revenues, including money generated outside the city, should be used for debt payments on the ORHS renovation.
School officials say a written agreement is needed, and they proposed one in May, but the City Council informally rejected it.
Despite the disagreement between city and school officials, Agle and Oak Ridge Board of Education Chair Keys Fillauer would not characterize the relationship between the two bodies as adversarial.
“I do not believe the Board of Education and the City Council have an adversarial relationship,†said Fillauer, a retired teacher and coach. “We do not always agree. I think that’s healthy.â€
“We’re going to disagree from time to time,†Agle said. Those disagreements will generally be about money, she said.
Agle and Fillauer said the solution is for the two bodies to work together to find a middle ground.
“The answer, in large part, is talking,†said Agle, the only candidate or school board member who has a child in school. In the meantime, there are areas where the city and school system can work together, including on phone systems and a new computer data center, Agle said.
The school board candidates have participated in a series of recent forums, including one sponsored by an Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce task force and another hosted by the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge.
Among other things, they were asked which programs or services they might cut.
Abbatiello said he would cut $100,000 in funding for legal help.
“It provides nothing for education,†he said.
But Fillauer, who defended the spending on legal help, said cuts have already been made to programs from driver’s education to summer band camp, and he doesn’t want the list to grow. There are some programs that have been eliminated that he would like to fund again, if possible, using higher tax revenues and more state money.
“There is nothing at this point in time that I would put on the table to cut,†Fillauer said.
Agle said she is optimistic that the city’s sales tax situation is improving, and a new Kroger Marketplace shopping center could generate the equivalent of 10 cents on the property tax rate. That will be critical to schools, Agle said.
“It’s not a debt problem,†Agle said. “It’s a revenue problem.â€
Virtual schools
Asked about virtual schools, Agle said she is a proponent of technology, but the only virtual school in Tennessee has had miserable results so far.
Fillauer said he doesn’t support using money designated to public schools for for-profit institutions. He also said he is opposed to a school voucher system.
Abbatiello said technology is a tool and should be used profitably when possible.
Demographic changes
Abbatiello said Oak Ridge has a two-tier school system, and the system’s excellence is jeopardized by family quality. He said there are 160 high-performing students, and the rest have to “get what they can.â€
Forty-five percent of students are on the free-lunch program, Abbatiello said. He said he’s proud of new commercial developments such as the Kroger project, but the degree of growth that the city needs is “unreal.â€
He cited economic problems, saying only 10 new homes were built in Oak Ridge last year, among other things.
Agle said it’s true that there is a higher percentage of economically disadvantaged children in classrooms today, but the excellence of the well-respected school system is not at risk. She cited, for example, a recent National Blue Ribbon designation for Glenwood Elementary School from the U.S. Department of Education.
Agle said educators have to teach differently and bridge the gap between those who are ahead of their classes and those who are behind. Still, schools can help improve the lives of disadvantaged children. Some of those students take advanced placement classes and go on to college, Agle said.
“Just because they’re poor does not mean they can’t learn,†she said.
Fillauer seemed to bristle at Abbatiello’s comments about family quality.
“That is absolutely, 100 percent wrong,†Fillauer said. “We need to educate everyone who comes through Oak Ridge schools.â€
Preschool
The candidates were asked whether the city might get a new preschool, a project that’s been on the school’s wish list for years.
“It is something that is desperately needs to be done,†Agle said. Sales tax revenues are absolutely critical to funding projects like those, she said.
Fillauer agreed that the city’s tax base needed to improve, but he said school officials won’t lose interest in building the new facility.
“This is one item that I can assure you that will stay on the plate of the Board of Education,†Fillauer said.
Abbatiello acknowledged that the decades-old preschool is not appropriate, but he suggested the school system will have to live with it.
“Debt is killing us,†Abbatiello said. “You can’t continue to ignore what you’re spending.â€
Early voting for the Nov. 6 election started Wednesday morning and ends Nov. 1.
Note: This story was last updated at 10:36 p.m. Oct. 17.
Sam says
No, Angie, the answer is not in talking but in doing. Pay the school system’s share on the high school mortgage as the OR voters expected when they approved the sales tax increase. Shame on the school board for refusing. This blunder is going to haunt the school system for years to come.
Vote Abbatiello and vote for no other. Send a message loud and clear.
agent86 says
Say, Hoppy Sam, where exactly does the school board get the money to “Pay the school system’s share”? Certainly not from the sales tax.
And BTW, I see censorship is alive and well on this website. 10 comments have been made to this story and only 8 are now showing.
Mike says
Sam, you probably do not want the truth but first, the schools not city borrowed $66 million to build the HS. Private and company donations as well as grants funded almost $20 million. Anyone that uses the $66 million amount is either uninformed or lying.
John Huotari says
I think the $66 million includes all spending. I’m not sure of the precise amount borrowed by the city. I’ll have to check. As I recall, several funding methods were used, including the half-cent sales tax increase in Oak Ridge, QZAB bonds, and fundraising by the Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation.
mushroomcloud says
One thing that I have never been able to understand is that the Citizens voted to $55 million diollars and the suitting cuity councuil allowed the cost to baloon to $71 million and the educational dream makers contributed several $million which still did not bring it to the level approved by taxpayers. It still disturbes me that no one sued these folks for breaching public trust.
This is why a simple $2 million cannot be found for a SENIOR CENTER —Oak Ridgers only get pretty pictures to look at for a good feeling. Seniors do not get the gestures of Goodwill from business like UT-Battelle as a positive act of good will after working years to support their workforce.
Anne Garcia Garland says
Mike, The schools cannot borrow money. The money was borrowed by the city. Unfortunately, as sometimes happens, the total plan was not adhered to and overages were paid for with additional unanticipated borrowings. There are plenty of mea culpas to go around. I would like to see the record of the $20 million in private donations cited. But the issue lately has been that the school board didn’t even come to council ahead of time and say, hey, we’re really short on funds, can you help us out? The school board decided to reneg on paying the funds as agreed and to argue that the agreement only applied to city sales tax revenues. If they wanted the citizens to respect them, they might have better paid as they had been doing and then asked for additional support.
So now I am caused to wonder what is currently being done at the high school to the tune of $800,000 (per their building permit) that was so urgent that they needed the citizens to provide an additional half million dollars to fix the “emergency” repairs at Woodland Elementary this year.
Despite the protestations of Mr. Hope and Mr. Hensley and the incumbent school board candidates, there is a serious rift between council and school board. What should be happening is cooperation and collaborative planning. What we have is a school board which has taken a posture which looks suspiciously like “we don’t answer to anyone.” No wonder the citizens don’t have much use for either school board or council. I recommend listening to the ever diplomatic Ms. Smith and urging your council and school board to get serious about addressing the city’s vision together.
charlie hensley says
Anne and citizens of Oak Ridge. Please note that I have frequently proposed a solution to this issue. My “protestations” (Anne, your word, not mine) are along the lines of returning to the system we had in place 3 years ago. The Council’s Budget and Finance Committee, of which I was the last Chairman, insisted on a series of meetings between the school officials and the Budget and Finance Committee of Council starting in November and continuing through May. This series of meetings, in Fall-’09 through Spring-’10, resulted in the last mutually agreed upon school budget entry in the final City Budget. No adversarial situation existed as a result of these deliberations and no surprises resulted when the schools presented their final budget requests. I still feel this is the best way to achieve a mutually agreed upon final budget. I have volunteered to be the liason between Council and BOE for the purpose of bringing us back together for the benefit of our children, our great schools, and our City as a whole.
Sam says
Very well stated Ms. Garland. The betrayal of the OR taxpayors by the school board is a huge blunder and is unaceptable. Keys calls the dispute “healthy” and Angi says “we just need to talk.” Can you say “hogwash?”
Vote for Len and for no other running for school board. Send the school board a clear message that deception is not an option!
agent86 says
Say, Sam (as in Hoppy, right?), where do you think the funding for the schools comes from? Some comes from the sales tax, some comes from the Federal Government and some comes from the State. Some $13 million comes from the city. Whatever the BOE might “contribute” to the debt payment has to come from somewhere, don’t you think? And if it comes from the school budget, then the revenues funding the school budget must be increased to cover that cost. The Federal and State contributions aren’t going to change. And neither the BOE nor the city council can control the amount of sales tax revenue, so the only source that is left is the funding from the city. The city can increase their contribution to the school budget so that the BOE can return some funds to the city to pay the debt. Or, perhaps the BOE can reduce instructional expenses to make up the difference. Contributions by the BOE to paying for the debt is akin to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
And Ms. Garland, isn’t the $800k building project at the high school, the “Head End Room” computer construction? If so, it was reported in the media. And it’s in the 2013 BOE budget available on line. And if that’s not what it’s for, a simple phone call should get you an answer. Whether you agree with the expenditure or not is your privilege, but to deny knowledge of it only shows ignorance.
And one more thing. For Abbatiello to claim that there are only 160 “high performing students”, is rather ludicrous. For example, the advanced placement participation rate at Oak Ridge High School is 41
percent. And that in no way means that the remaining students aren’t necessarily “high performing”. But then what exactly does Mr. Abbatiello think that the school board can do about “family quality”? You know, I’ve heard a story that Mr. Abbatiello is running for the BOE because his wife tried 5 times to get a job with the school system and didn’t get hired. As far as I can tell, like Hoppy Sam and some of the other old geezers in town, he’s just an angry old man.
Sam says
Well Clyde1,2,3 you are still out in left field on the theft of the school’s share of the sales tax they receive from the county that is suppossed to go to pay on the school mortgage. You really need to get in the game, don’t be so obtuse.
BTW, is it still buried in mason jars behind the SAB?
Oh, and whatever happened to the State Comptroller ruling on the legality of the city reducing the school budget by the amount of the school’s share of the stolen mortgage payment?
Vote for abbatiello and no other for school board. Send a message loud and clear that theft is still illegal.
agent86 says
So nice of you to admit that you’re Sam Hopwood, an angry 81 year old geezer. And I’m not the one out in left field about the school’s share of the sales tax. The dedicated 0.5% for the debt went by the wayside when Anderson County raised their sales tax rate. Now, Oak Ridge Schools get about 40% of half of the 2.75% local option tax, and the other half is apportioned to the county municipalities according to where it was collected. There is no sales tax money that is “supposed to go to pay on the school mortgage”. You, like Abbatiello and Trina Baughn, are too dense to to understand that simple fact.