We will have a story today about Arkansas City winning a bunch of "awards of excellence" from the state dept. of education.
These are banners schools get for reaching certain goals, such as students being proficient in areas like reading, writing and other subjects.
Arkansas City has won so many of these banners its almost getting to be commonplace.
Education is one area where Arkansas City is doing well. It is something to take pride in.
There is a lot of information available about this at the state web site. Here is the link to the report cards.
http://online.ksde.org/rcard/State
From there you can view the report card on the whole state, district by district, and even by school building. It isnt very user-friendly, and is kinda hard to understand, but ... it is there for those of you who want to look.
And here is a link to follow the money. Budget info on any district in the state.
http://www.ksde.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1812
And you know the district is pushing for a large bond issue vote to fix up buildings.
The state did fork over a lot of new money last year, but that just got the district kind of caught up.
I sat through a long presentation on the bond issue at a recent Lions Club meeting. It was interesting and they make a pretty good case.
One thing to note is that a new football facility is not the only thing on the table, and is not even the centerpiece. Replacing heating and cooling units are the biggest expense.
When you say $ 30 - some million, that sounds like a lot of money and it is. But, this will cost the homeowner of a $100,000 house about $75 extra per year on his or her property taxes. The median priced house in Ark City is $54,000, and the extra property taxes would amount to about $36.
This may be a hot button issue, but we do need to get at the facts and decide what we want.
I will say that the athletic facilities here are rather pathetic.
The bond issue will be coming up. Just not sure when. They were going to do it in November, but decided to do it at another time. They felt they needed more time to educate the public - which is political speak for - they were not sure it would pass.
What I would suggest is educating yourself. The above links are a good place to start. Base opinion on fact, not on rumor and other people's opinion.
No one wants to pay more taxes. Taxes are high here. I know they are higher than what we were paying in South Carolina. There politicians lived in fear, knowing that if they raised taxes they would be voted out of office next time they were up.
State taxes are higher here too.
Part of the reason is the population. We had a lot more people there, and there were constantly new people moving in. The tax base was growing by leaps and bounds. The school district where I lived was building a new school about every year. So they had increases in spending every year without raising taxes.
But we don't have that here, with a relatively sparse population and not much growth.
Not sure there is anything we can do about that.
I do wonder though, if there isn't a more fair way to tax than to put it on the property taxes. There are lots of people here who own homes and pay property tax, but dont have kids in schools.
Maybe a sales tax would be better ?
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4 comments:
Great to hear that Ark City is doing well in the education department. I had a fairly decent education there so I am not surprised.
My question is, and it may seem odd, but what type of heating and cooling structures would they be implementing?
I think it would be excellent if they would incorporate some green methods into our school buildings.
Geothermal systems are typically a little more but so much more energy efficient than regular HVAC.
That would be very forward thinking of the DOE as energy costs are going to continue to rise.
If I lived in AC, I would definitely vote for a bond if they were incorporating green practices. I was disappointed that the newly installed street lights were not solar.
I do agree for the need for better schools and curriculum. Regardless - without well paying jobs here in town, all a good education will get a student is a ticket out of here. New Sonics and KFCs will not provide living wages and only give the impression of economic improvement. I'm not negative, just a little tired of the enthusiasm over a few additional minimum wage jobs.
Speaking of education and it's costs - once again I ask "When is the school district building going to be sold and returned to the tax rolls?"
. I'm not negative, just a little tired of the enthusiasm over a few additional minimum wage jobs.
From what I hear, our biggest need is for people. There are plenty of jobs out there. Most are not real well paying, But some are.
One company owner told me that he had a few jobs in the $10-$12 an hour range, but couldnt find anyone ... and when he did get applicants they couldnt pass a drug test.
Even at the Traveler we struggle to get people.
A few more minimum wage jobs isnt going to be a great impact, but i think the new eating establishments is a quality of life improvement.
Speaking of education and it's costs - once again I ask "When is the school district building going to be sold and returned to the tax rolls?"
I think we had a story a month or so about how they had not received any bids. Ill look it up, but I am pretty sure we had that. :)
Thanks for commenting on my question about the old district building. I understand that there have been two bids. The appraised value of the building was way high - it didn't include the roof damage (requires replacement) and trhe interior damage due to the bad roof. These things won't improve on their own and continued delays will only exacerbate the deterioration and lower the value. A new, accurate appraisal is necessary so realistic bids can be solicited. No, I was not one of the bidders.
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