Oak Ridge Today

Documentary focusing on school funding, privatization at Pellissippi on Thursday

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BackpackKnoxville 2017_11_09

The League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge is urging members interested in school choice to attend a documentary at Pellissippi State Community College in Hardin Valley on Thursday.

The documentary is titled “Backpack Full of Cash.” It’s narrated by Matt Damon, and it’s described in an event flyer as a film “exploring the real cost of privatizing America’s public schools.”

In the United States, $600 billion per year is spent to educate children, a fact “near and dear” to proponents of privatizing, according to information provided by Kay Moss.

Filmed during the 2013-2014 school year in Nashville, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and other cities, the feature-length documentary narrated by Damon concentrates on how privatization is devastating public school funding, the information said. [Read more…]

Council approves budget with no tax increase, more money for schools

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Note: This story was last updated at 12:15 a.m.

The Oak Ridge City Council approved a budget on Monday that does not include a property tax rate increase, but it does include more money for schools and it anticipates increases in the trash fee and water and sewer rates.

The budget passed in a 6-1 vote in the first of two readings this month. The second and final reading is Monday, June 13.

Council rejected one motion to lower the $2.52 property tax rate by 4.4 cents and another to take away the additional $538,048 requested by Oak Ridge Schools and put it into the capital fund instead.

The budget does not increase the property tax rate for the ninth year in a row. After five-year reappraisals last year, the rate is now set at $2.52 per $100 of assessed value.

As approved on first reading Monday, the budget includes a 3 percent pay adjustment that will move municipal employees along their pay scales, helping to separate those who have worked for the city for a while from those who have just started. The school budget, which was approved by the Oak Ridge Board of Education in May, also includes 3 percent salary increases. [Read more…]

Opinion: A tale of three cities

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By Trina Baughn

As we delve into what could be the last city budget I work on as a council member, I reflect upon both the state of the city and my contributions thus far. I could boast that, during my tenure, no property taxes were raised, and we’ve reduced total debt levels. However, those claims would be misleading given that council has so steeply expanded their reach into your pocket by other means. In fact, council is considering doing that very thing, yet again, with this budget. More on that in a moment.

Property taxes and debt paint only a partial picture of a city’s financial health. While both are very important, consideration must be given to their utility and return on investment. For many years, I have published in-depth analyses of some of the major expenditures that have brought us to the point we are today, such as:

  • How you were sold a $40 million high school that will, in the end, cost you over $126 million.
  • The fact that the city, not the EPA, was at fault for your water and sewer rates doubling in only a few short years, thereby incurring $33 million worth of debt on top of  the $24 million we’d already spent to avoid the EPA mandate.
  • An accounting of the $10 million you’ve paid on a golf course you were assured would pay for itself but hasn’t and won’t for many more years to come, if ever.
  • Your annual $175,000 subsidy (compare to Farragut, which only spends $15,000) of a Chamber of Commerce that is largely made up of nonprofits, government organizations, and non-Oak Ridge businesses that regularly pressure council to increase your property taxes.
  • Frequent disclosures of excessive, non-essential spending such as a $275,000 parking lot, a $1 million fountain, a $300,000 bathroom and much, much more.
  • How crony capitalism has run amuck, forcing you to offset the extensive corporate welfare the city doles out on your behalf.
  • Demonstrating that you are likely overpaying for your trash services with Waste Connections, which is charging less in communities where they had to compete.
  • Reminding you of the broken promises of Partners for Progress, which cost you $15 million on the failed Rarity Ridge/Horizon Center development 16 years ago and warning of similar pitfalls in the $13 million mall TIF (tax increment financing).
  • And, because half of your property taxes fund our schools, I frequently challenged our superintendent and school board when they would demand more of your money on the grounds that, in spite of being the one of the most heavily funded systems in the state, much of your money is not making it into the classroom where it belongs.

Some will view the above examples through a different lens if they rely upon what they see around town. We have certainly seen an uptick in eateries, and we can all appreciate the aesthetic value of some of the new developments. Those new developments have, however, displaced some pre-existing businesses, leaving us with an abundance of vacant properties. [Read more…]

Guest column: Oak Ridge Chamber endorses schools’ funding request

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Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce

The Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce is pictured above.

Note: This is a copy of a May 30 letter sent to Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan and members of City Council.

Mayor Beehan and members of Council:

The Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce has a long-standing tradition of supporting education in our community.

Education is critical in the development of the workforce and is the foundation for a community’s economic vitality.

Our Oak Ridge Schools is an internationally recognized system of excellence and is known for being a leader in new, innovative programs. These educational opportunities, rigor, and performance provided by Oak Ridge Schools have been, and continue to be, the key attraction for new residents to our community. [Read more…]

Council gives schools $250,000, school shutdown avoided

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Bruce Borchers and Mark Watson

During a special meeting Tuesday, Oak Ridge municipal officials agreed to give the city school system an extra $250,000 to avoid a potential loss of millions of dollars in state funding and avert a possible Oct. 1 school shutdown. Pictured above are Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers, left, and City Manager Mark Watson, who recommended the extra funding on Tuesday. (File photo)

In a short special meeting Tuesday, the Oak Ridge City Council agreed to give the city’s schools $250,000 to allow the system to avoid a potential loss of millions of dollars in state funding and avert a possible Oct. 1 shutdown.

The one-time transfer will come from higher-than-expected sales tax revenues in Roane County.

The vote was 4-1-1. Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan, Mayor Pro Tem Jane Miller, and Council members Chuck Hope and Charlie Hensley voted in favor of the extra funding, which had been recommended by City Manager Mark Watson. [Read more…]

Council agrees to special meeting on school shortfall but wants documentation

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Mark Watson

Mark Watson

The Oak Ridge City Council has agreed to meet in a special session next week to try to resolve a $250,000 school funding shortfall that education officials claim could lead to a loss of millions of dollars in state funding and a temporary school shutdown if it’s not resolved by Oct. 1.

But Council members want documentation to accompany the request, Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson told Superintendent Bruce Borchers in a Sept. 11 letter. It should include an explanation of why the money is needed, information on decisions made by the Oak Ridge Board of Education to close schools on Oct. 1 if the funding is not obtained, and copies of any formal notice from the Tennessee education commissioner that he has agreed to withhold all of the state funding for Oak Ridge Schools starting in October, the city manager said. [Read more…]

Guest column: The sky is not falling on school funding, city manager says

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Mark Watson

Mark Watson

The Sky is NOT Falling!

It is not often that a city manager takes the time to write an editorial, but I think this is one of those times.

These past two weeks, I have been working with new School Superintendent Bruce Borchers in reviewing a notice he received from the State of Tennessee that the financial formulas for required school funding have not been met by Oak Ridge. This principle is known as maintenance of effort.

Oak Ridge is one of the few school systems in Tennessee recognized as a city system. The school system is a “department” of the city for budgetary purposes.

Our school system has maintained itself through the years as one of the premier school systems in the state, and citizens here pay much more than the minimum requirements for school maintenance found elsewhere. However, with ups and downs of sales taxes and reductions in some state funding categories, the school and the city have found themselves calculated as coming up short in the statewide formula. This is the problem that Superintendent Borchers and myself find ourselves working together to resolve. With a solution, we will take that to our respective City Council and School Board. [Read more…]