School board approves tax levy

A tax levy of $11.8 million for the December 2009 levy, payable for the 2010-11 school year, was approved by the Illinois Valley Central District 321 school board at its Dec. 15 meeting.

The levy is an increase of $400,000 from last year’s levy of $11.4 million.

Patrick Hatfield, assistant superintendent, gave a presentation during the tax levy hearing and explained the reasons for the amount.

Though the district is asking for $11.8 million, most likely the district coffers will receive $11.4 million.

“The extension is the actual amount of taxes we will receive,” Hatfield said. “We know that extension is never really what we ask for. We are going to ask for a pretty good amount, and the extension is usually quite a bit less.”

Hatfield said the district talked with the county assessor a couple of months ago to get an idea of what the Equalized Assessed Value would be.

“We have a little confounding factor that is thrown into the mix this year, and that is the increase in the general homestead exemption,” he said.

The exemption serves to decrease the EAV in the district, so they will likely see growth of only 1.8 percent, he said.

For the levy creation, some of the funds have the amount set by what the district needs, he said.

Those include the tort/liability, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, Social Security and bonds.

The other funds — including special education, fire/safety and transportation, among others — are rates set by a referendum or a legal requirement.

Patrick said the county assessor has been very accurate in the predictions over the years.

“They had a new piece of software that was installed about four or five years ago that helped them a little bit with those projections,” he said.

With the $11.8 million, the district would see a total tax rate of 4.5 percent, he said.

Hatfield compared 2009 with 2004, when the district also experienced a spike in tax rates because of the increase in the homestead exemption.

“That had an impact on our tax rate that year,” he said. “And we are seeing a little bit of that same effect here this year.”

In other action and discussion, the board:

• heard a construction update by superintendent Dr. Nick Polyak about the progress at South School. He said crews have plans to be completely under roof in the upcoming week, with only the north connector hallway roof and 25 to 30 percent of the gym roof to finish.

The glass windows are also being installed all along the corridor, he said. 

“It’s really a considerable difference to be over these days to see what’s happening,” he said.

• heard a report by board member Steve Nalley about the annual purchase of buses for the district. Typically, the district purchases three new buses per year so they avoid driving “a bunch of clunkers,” Nalley said.

“With the economic situations the way they are, we’re going to analyze that fleet a little further and see if there’s a possibility to perhaps delay next year’s purchase of three buses for a year,” he said.

• heard an update from Polyak about the economic state of the Special Education Cooperative for Peoria County. SEAPCO had its board of directors meeting recently and announced that it is nearly out of money, Polyak said.

SEAPCO relies heavily on money that comes from the state, he said.

“And just like everyone else, they’re not getting that money in a timely fashion,” he said. “So, they have enough money right now to pay their teachers and aides today, but in two weeks, they don’t have enough money to make their payroll because the state hasn’t given them their money.”

In response, SEAPCO has pre-billed its member districts one month in advance, he said.

Therefore, District 321 has pre-paid for its January bill this month.

“This will be an ongoing discussion, because we can’t keep future billing to get them through the whole year,” he said.

• approved the personnel contract for Nate Hyde, special education aide at CEC

• approved a resignation for Anna Dela Rosa, part-time art instructor at IVC high school and a child care leave request for Cheryl Van Farowe.