Oak Ridge Today

Proposed schools budget would include raises, ask city for more money

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The budget proposed for Oak Ridge Schools for the fiscal year that starts July 1 includes 3 percent salary increases and a request for an additional $538,048 from the city. As proposed, the budget also includes the reduction of the full-time equivalent of four teachers and an increase in five technology positions.

The budget was presented to the Oak Ridge Board of Education on Tuesday. The board has a work session to discuss the Fiscal Year 2017 budget at 5:30 p.m. today (Thursday, May 12) and a work session to review the budget line by line at 5:30 p.m. Monday, May 16.

If implemented as proposed, the budget would ask the city for a 3.6 percent increase in funding. It would also include experience-based pay increases known as step increases for staff.

It would include money to fund a 6.2 percent increase in health insurance rates and another 10 percent for dental insurance. [Read more…]

City, schools to present budgets to Council today

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Mark Watson

Mark Watson

Note: This story was updated at 9:23 a.m.

The municipal and school budgets will be presented to the Oak Ridge City Council during a meeting this evening (Monday, June 1).

The municipal budget will be presented by Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson. The schools budget will be presented by Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. today in the Oak Ridge Municipal Building Courtroom at 200 South Tulane Avenue. See the agenda here.

City officials have been striving to present a budget that does not include a property tax rate increase. But it wasn’t clear as of last week if that would be possible because of a dramatic drop in sales tax revenues from the Roane County portion of the city. [Read more…]

School budget would ask city for $650K, use $1.75M from fund balance

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Oak Ridge Board of Education May 26, 2015

The Oak Ridge Board of Education on Tuesday unanimously approved a budget that would use $1.75 million from the school system’s fund balance and ask the city for about $650,000. The request for more money still has to be considered by the Oak Ridge City Council.

 

Note: This story was last updated at 11:12 a.m. May 27.

The Oak Ridge Board of Education on Tuesday approved a budget that would use $1.75 million from the school system’s fund balance and ask the city for about $650,000.

Those two actions would help Oak Ridge Schools cover a deficit of roughly $638,000 and meet a total of $1.75 million in other desired expenses, or “additional investment,” including:

  • about $1.1 million for 3 percent pay raises with benefits,
  • $484,000 for step increases based on experience, and
  • approximately $211,000 for staff, including a communications director, four technology-related positions, and a teacher’s assistant for an elementary behavioral class. The four technology-related jobs include an instructional technology coach, an applications administrator, and two technology technicians.

[Read more…]

Guest column: Afterthoughts on the 2015 budget

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Trina Baughn

Trina Baughn

A lot of incomplete, and sometimes inaccurate, information has been disseminated to the public regarding the Fiscal Year 2015 city and school budgets. Such inconsistencies compound citizen frustrations as they begin to feel the impact of both bodies’ decisions. I would like to offer some clarification along with supporting resources, which will also be hyperlinked within my website, trinabaughn.com.

First, let me address the claim that council is “not supportive” of our schools. I assure you that each and every one of us actively supports the education of Oak Ridge children with both our private and public contributions of time and money.

Furthermore, when factoring in debt payments, council allocates roughly half of all property taxes toward our schools. In fact, there are only four other communities in all of the state that out fund Oak Ridge at the local level. And even though council did not increase the tax rate this year, we did increase funding to the schools by over $500,000 due to the high school mortgage obligation shift. And contrary to claims that funding levels have been flat or declined, a simple comparison from 2005–2014 shows that total school spending has increased from $42.3 million to $55.5 million.

Second, both city and school representatives are guilty of understating their employees’ history of pay increases. City employees have received pay raises four out of the last five years. Teachers, too, have received raises every year of the last five years. The range and form of those raises is worthy of further discussion, and I intend on broaching the subject in our next joint Council/BOE meeting. [Read more…]

Guest column: Yes to one device per child, no to property tax increase

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Aditya "Doc" Savara

Aditya “Doc” Savara

By Aditya “Doc” Savara

On June 2, Dr. Bruce Borchers, the superintendent overseeing Oak Ridge Schools, presented a 2015 school budget plan to City Council, which included a request for a property tax increase of about 15 percent. Landlords would presumably pass this increase onto renters as well.

The justification for this tax increase is to pay for thousands of touchscreen tablet computers and notebook computers: one for each child in our school system for most age ranges. The idea is bold and expensive. The revolutionary change is based on the following three premises:

  1. Our children need to be “technology-ready” for the future with sufficient experience to make such technology feel “ordinary” to them.
  2. These devices may have educational benefits in our schools.
  3. When parents are trying to decide where they will live, parents might choose a city that follows a one-device-per-child policy.

I taught at Northwestern University, where I won department-wide and college-wide teaching awards. Based on my teaching experience, I was initially against one device per child, because I did not think such devices would improve learning, certainly not enough to justify such an expense (my experience is that better teachers and better students result in better learning). [Read more…]

In first vote this month, Council rejects schools request for tax increase

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Oak Ridge City Council Budget Meeting

The Oak Ridge City Council rejected the school system’s request for a 37-cent tax rate increase on Monday, instead voting in the first of two votes this month to keep the tax rate steady for the seventh year in a row.

Note: This story was last updated at 9:55 a.m. June 10.

In the first of two votes this month, the Oak Ridge City Council on Monday rejected a request from school officials for a 37-cent tax rate increase that would, among other things, help fund a technology initiative meant to eventually provide an electronic learning device or tablet to all students.

Council member Charlie Hensley said the tax increase would be the largest in the city’s history, and it came in late in the budget process.

The property tax rate is now $2.39 per $100 of assessed value. The increase would push it to $2.76, and it could cost the owner of a $200,000 home another $15 per month.

“I was looking to support a tax increase, but the one that we got asked for is really, really high,” Hensley said.

There was a two-part vote on the budget on Monday. The first reduced the amount transferred to the schools to roughly $14.6 million, which was about $3.3 million less than the school board had requested, and it kept the tax rate steady for the seventh year in a row. The vote on that amendment was 5-2, with Hensley and Council member Chuck Hope voting no. [Read more…]

City recommends budget with no tax increase, Council votes Monday

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Oak Ridge City Council

The Oak Ridge City Council is pictured above during an August 2013 meeting. (File photo)

Note: This story was updated at 7:40 p.m. June 4.

Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson on Monday recommended a budget that does not raise the property tax rate, setting up a potential conflict with school officials, who have requested a 37-cent tax increase to avoid cuts.

The Oak Ridge Board of Education already approved its budget in in two meetings last week. That budget, which was scaled back from an earlier proposal, could include an extra $3.3 million to start implementing a technology initiative known as 1:1 that would provide electronic learning devices to all students over three years, add five technology positions, and give 2 percent pay raises to staff.

But the budget is still subject to the amount appropriated to the schools by the city. Oak Ridge provides a little less than one-third of the school system’s funding.

While the schools have approved a budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1, the city has not. The Oak Ridge City Council will consider the municipal budget in two separate meetings this month, one on June 9 and the second on June 16. The city budget also includes a 2 percent pay raise for employees.

It’s not clear that Oak Ridge City Council members will agree to raise taxes to accommodate the school system’s request. In his budget presentation to Council on Monday, Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson said Council members have endorsed keeping the tax rate unchanged for the seventh year in a row.

[Read more…]

Schools scale back tech initiative, could ask for 37-cent tax increase

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Doug Cofer and Oak Ridge Board of Education

Doug Cofer, left, director of the Oak Ridge Schools Technology Department, shows the Board of Education a Powerpoint presentation on Wednesday that outlines changes in the budget proposal that were made at the request of the board. (Photo by Sara Wise)

 

School officials scaled back the rollout of a digital technology initiative that would provide every student with an electronic device before approving a budget that could require a 37-cent tax increase to avoid cuts in staff or programs.

It could be one of the largest requests for a property tax rate increase in recent years. But it’s not clear if city officials, who have been working toward a no-tax-increase budget, will agree to any rate hikes.

The Oak Ridge Board of Education passed the budget for Fiscal Year 2015, which starts July 1, in a 5-1 vote on first reading on Wednesday. The vote came after amendments were made based on discussions by the school board on Tuesday night.

Board member Dan DiGregorio cast the lone vote against the proposal on Wednesday. DiGregorio said he couldn’t support a reduction in staff or more programs to make up for the tax increase, should the city not approve it. The board will ask the city for a tax increase of $0.37, down from the original proposed increase of $0.42.

[Read more…]

Anderson County officials discuss budget Monday evening

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Terry Frank

Terry Frank

Spending requests have exceeded expected revenues by more than $4 million, mostly because of a proposal to hire more jailers, and Anderson County officials will discuss the budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1 during a Monday evening workshop.

Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank and Budget Director Chris Phillips have said they plan to present a balanced budget that does not raise taxes but still provides core services.

County officials have said projected revenues are down slightly, or about 98 percent of what they are in the current fiscal year. There has been a slight increase in property assessments, but sales and business tax revenues are projected to be down. [Read more…]

Letter: School board campaign educational, financial default remains

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To the Editor:

I would like to personally thank each of you, the nearly 4,300 citizens that supported me in my campaign to change how our Board of Education deals with its major problems.

Many of you may have noticed that from the beginning of this campaign I elected to run a very unconventional political campaign that was intended to inform rather than just win votes. My campaign was designed to inform the general public about a little known financial default. A default that the BOE has not wanted to even admit exists and explains as a simple misunderstanding.

But this default is as real as the daily sunrise. In spite of that, it has received little public press and no open discussion by either the BOE or the current City Council members.

When I began this campaign, I understood full well the major difficulties that I faced in operating a political campaign based on informing the public. In August, less than 10 people knew a default had occurred. By Nov. 6, about 18 percent of the voters knew about the default. Political campaigns are rarely based on informing anyone or on any real facts. Even fewer campaigns are won based on real facts or principles.

Today, the same disagreement and financial problem exists following the election that was created by the BOE over a year ago. A problem that has resulted in a $766,470 reduction in the 2013 school budget, reducing the Oak Ridge city transfer from $14.6 million to $13.86 million.

This major 2013 reduction has yet to be dealt with by the BOE, and the school budget remains unbalanced. This reduction will also reduce all future city school transfer funds because it establishes a new base from which all future increases grow.

Now, the same people that created the problem and poor relationship must correct it. Members of the BOE have threatened both state and legal action to retain the previous budget, but none of these threats have yet taken place. Also, nothing has been done to improve the situation.

I wish both the BOE members and the school staff well in dealing with the reality of this unaddressed significant budget reduction and their self-created poor relationship. Should this situation remain uncorrected, both will impact staffing and program content in our fine school system.

Citizens, thank you again for your support and your committed concern to both our quality of life and everyone’s’ efforts to improve Oak Ridges’ competitiveness as we move to the future.

Leonard Abbatiello

Oak Ridge

School budget cuts jobs, restores reading specialists

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School Board Budget Meeting

Oak Ridge Board of Education members approve a budget Thursday. From left are board member Dan DiGregorio, Parliamentarian Jenny Richter, Chair Keys Fillauer, Treasurer Angi Agle, and Vice Chair Bob Eby.

The five-member Oak Ridge Board of Education unanimously approved a balanced budget Thursday that cuts some staff positions but restores reading specialists.

The staff reductions include a technology technician, maintenance staff member, district-wide custodian, the full-time equivalent of 6.5 teaching assistants, and some teaching positions.

[Read more…]