From the Quincy Herald-Whig:

School Board to continue tax discussion
Friday, November 9, 2007

By Holly Wagner
Herald-Whig Staff Writer

The Quincy School Board will conduct a special meeting at 6:45 a.m. Saturday in the board office at 1444 Maine.

"We want to continue the discussion begun a week ago, talking about issues facing the district and possible solutions," board member Bill Daniels said. "I don't expect we're going to take action on anything."

At a meeting Oct. 29, the board discussed the tax levy that must to be adopted in December. They talked about lowering the tax rate for the tort immunity fund, now 80 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, and whether to ask voters in February to replace some of that tax in the education fund.

The board voted not to spend about $4.8 million already collected under tort for salaries after a court ruled the practice illegal, based on the district's risk-management plan. The ruling is under appeal.

The board will get information on a new risk-management plan, designed to comply with the judge's ruling, at its board meeting Wednesday.

"That's a key component," Daniels said. "It's yet to be determined if or how ... it will be used. ... Decision time is going to be Wednesday."

Other issues facing the board include redrawing school boundaries to ease overcrowding in some buildings, whether to reorganize so fourth- and fifth-graders can remain in neighborhood schools, and how to group ninth-graders with the rest of the high school.

"We needed another meeting to help coalesce the board," board member Jeff Mays said. "We need to have more of these meetings and they need to be public. But we're all busy. This was the best day we could all get together."

All these initiatives hinge on the district's finances. Even if the district were to proceed with its present rate of collecting tort funds, projections show a deficit of $8 million by 2012.

The deadline to put a referendum on the February ballot is Dec. 3. The next opportunity is November 2008.

While the Illinois Ethics and Gift Ban Act says board members and administrators cannot work to advocate for or against a referendum, they can continue to present the facts, board member Glenn Bemis said.

"The current board has inherited some problems" regarding the public's trust, Bemis said.

"We need to put it before the people," he said. "We need to be forthright in telling the good, the bad and the ugly. ... We can't afford to make a mistake."

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