Kingsland business manager Julie Schreiber kicked off the Kingsland School Board December 16 meeting with their annual Truth and Taxation presentation.
“Our funding will trail inflation by about $1,364 per pupil in 2025,” Schreiber said. “It (funding) has been increasing but it has not been keeping up with inflation. In 2026 there is going to be an automatic inflationary increase of 3% of the basic formula allowance. This will help but it won’t close the gap.”
According to Schreiber, the school levies have not been rising as fast as the county or township levies, and she reminded the group, those entities don’t have to go to the public for a vote like the school districts do when they are changing their levies.
“Because we’ve not been keeping up with inflation on the basic formula allowance it has forced districts to rely on referendums to continue to educate students at a high level like all school districts want to do,” Schreiber explained.
The effective tax rate estimate from 2024 shows farms at .48%, seasonal recreation at .79%, Residential homestead at 1.14%, apartments at 1.43%, public utility at 2.5% and commercial-industrial at 2.59%.
After much discussion, the board voted to certify the final tax levy at $3,241,110.22, which is a increase of $362,935 or 12.61% change from last year’s levy.
Bond Sale
“The bonds were quite competitive and attractive to potential buyers, which drove the interest rate down and drove down the cost of fees, too. So good news for everyone involved,” Superintendent Scott Klavetter said. “It will generate more dollars that will go towards actually maintenance work rather than fees. Because the interest rate came in seven-tenths of a percent lower than what was projected it will also keep the impact on taxpayers a little bit less than we had been predicting.”
The project will ramp up after the new year as they work on getting proposals for the work and finalizing the plans.
The sale of the general obligation capital appreciation school building bods series 2024A was approved.
Special Election
The board discussed possibly holding a special election in May to allow for a revote on question two of the referendum.
Question two is is the creation of additional space for physical education, community education and flexible, multipurpose programming at an estimated cost of $11.5 million.
Board member Cindy Seabright expressed the need for the second option as she witnessed during the schools Christmas concerts where many people had to stand because of the lack of space.
Board members agreed and shared their similar thoughts after the concerts.
It was noted that when the gym is set up for concerts they students have to have their physical education in the band room because of lack of space. Other space issues include the robotics team meeting in a closet in the art room.
There is concern that many of the voters did not fully understand the potential use of the space beyond physical education, so the board discussed presenting all the specific space issues they did not highlight previously.
Board member Gary Broadwater also shared his dismay for the weight room being on the stage and suggested that the school work to find a new location for it so the stage could be used as intended.
The board approved a motion to move forward with a special election in May 13, 2025.
Other Business
The board thanked the Spring Valley Area Community Foundation (SVACF) for their donation of $4,350 and the KABC for their donation of $4,328.64. Both donations will go toward the purchase of an activities trailer.
The purchase of the new activities trailer was approved. The school will be be in charge of the registration, insurance and maintenance for the trailer. Klavetter thanked Sarah Kohn for her hard work on making this happen.
The board approved the continuing contract teacher seniority list. This is a list that will be used with working on the budget.
It was announce that Seabright received the Directors Award from the Minnesota School Board Association (MSBA) for successfully earning 100 points from MSBA sponsored sessions to improve individual performance.
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