Altamont School Board Hears About Facilities Tax Proposal

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Published on June 18 2016 11:13 am
Last Updated on June 18 2016 11:13 am
Written by Greg Sapp

Effingham County voters may have the opportunity to reconsider a county facilities tax.

Altamont Superintendent Jeff Fritchtnitch told the school board at this month's meeting that the county school superintendents met recently. Fritchtnitch said the superintendents agreed that the tax needs to be pursued this year. He said a timeline to work on the initiative would be discussed in the near future.

A facilities tax is based on purchases in the county and generates revenue to be used specifically on school district facilities. The idea was pursued a couple of years ago, but was defeated by voters. The tax is in place in some area counties.

In other action, the Altamont board amended the budget for the current fiscal year to better reflect revenues, and increased the driver's ed fee to $100.

Board members employed Riahonnon Boehm as a grade school Art teacher, agreed to offer an early retirement incentive window, accepted irrevocable letters of resignation for Mrs. Lange and Mrs. Hammer, approved resignations from Gary Pfenninger as a bus driver and Megan Beccue as a teacher's aide, approved the resignation of Ashley Meers as junior high Scholastic Bowl coach, and approved a maternity leave request for Sara Berg.

Altamont board members reviewed the district attendance rate of 95.5%, the high school failure rate that is down to 7.7%, and the district discipline policy to make sure it lines up with new state guidelines. There was also discussion of requests to form a Bass Fishing Team, but no decision.