Oak Ridge Today

2014 Election: School board candidates talk taxes, budgets, bus routes, Preschool

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Oak Ridge Board of Education Candidates 2014

Oak Ridge Board of Education candidates are, from right, Mike Mahathy, Laura McLean, Bob Eby, Andy Howe, Paige Marshall, and Jean Hiser. Not pictured are Laurie Paine and Aaron Wells.

 

Note: This story was last updated at 10:10 a.m. Nov. 3.

School board candidates at two forums this campaign season expressed optimism that school officials will be able to continue to provide school bus transportation to most students in the next school year, and several said they would support a property tax rate increase if it were deemed necessary.

Bob Eby, Oak Ridge Board of Education vice chair, cited delayed staff raises and textbook purchases as well as capital project needs. Eby helped lead moves this summer to restore bus transportation to preschool students and then other students after the area where bus service is not provided was temporarily expanded to 1.5 miles as part of cost-cutting measures in June.

In August, Karen Gagliano, Oak Ridge Schools director of business and support services, said the $500,000 in fund balance money used to restore transportation and the delayed purchase of textbooks, among other things, means the school system could start the Fiscal Year 2015 budget discussions with a $1.8 million deficit, before anything new is added.

“I will ask for a tax increase next year,” Eby said. “We’ve put (off) all we can put off.” [Read more…]

Guest column: Self-perpetuating politics

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By David Allred, June 4, 2014

I got a phone call tonight that bothered me. The content of the message wasn’t so much an annoyance as the delivery system. You see, our schools sold us a bill of goods some time back about automated phone dialing. They said it would assist us in the event of emergencies, public service announcements, and other items of communication that might be pivotal to parent/school relations.

They were right. It’s a great system, probably worth the tax dollars, but I am no expert on its worth by any stretch of the imagination. Still, when that same taxpayer system of communication is used to solicit more taxpayer funds, I confess to being put on edge.

You see, I was one of hundreds, probably thousands of households, asked to fork over a little bit more money for a little more technology: tablets for all our students.

It’s a grand idea, I suppose. I mean, it is probably money that could be spent on an extra teacher or two or 12 or 20, but let’s face it—the tablet prepares our students for the modern world and there’s hardly anything more true of the modern world than replacing people with machines. [Read more…]