Baldwin school board sets two special meetings for budget, rec center

With the traditional big July meeting agenda item off the table, the most important decisions the Baldwin school board made Monday involved the scheduling of two special meetings for early August.

The board normally would have considered approving for publication the district’s 2016-2017 fiscal year budget at the meeting. However, because the Kansas Legislature didn’t approve a school funding formula acceptable to the Kansas Supreme Court until a June special session, the district has added time to work on the budget. The board will consider approving a budget for publication at 8 a.m. Aug. 2 at the district office.

The board also agreed to schedule a joint meeting on the proposed community center with the Baldwin City Council and Baldwin City Recreation Commission Board of Directors for 6:30 p.m. Aug. 9. The location of the meeting has not been established.

The district has agreed to donate land it owns north of the Baldwin High School campus for a future community center. Last month, BCRC Executive Director Steve Friend said the school board would be asked to approve an increase in the BCRC’s annual property tax levy of 2 mills to provide $2.5 million to help construct a community center. The BCRC has no taxing authority, but it has an agreement with the Baldwin school district to approve its annual 4 mill levy for operations.

On Monday, Friend proposed to the Baldwin City Council it provide the other $2.5 million needed for the community center’s construction with a half-cent sales tax.

Although the sales tax increase would have to be approved through a citywide vote, no such referendum is required for the districtwide property tax component unless there is a successful protest petition.

Baldwin School Board President Nick Harris said the joint meeting would help get all the issues involved with the community center before the public.

“People have said to me, ‘Why don’t you just improve the mill levy since it doesn’t require a vote of the people?'” he said. “It’s not that easy when you’re talking about increasing peoples’ mill levy for 20 years. Especially, when we don’t even know what our mill levy is going to be.”

In other business, Superintendent Paul Dorathy said staff dealt with a couple of problems Monday with the district’s online enrollment program, and it could be ready for use as early as Tuesday. There has been a good deal of parent interest in enrolling students online, he said.