The New Bloomfield School District will receive an estimated $37,000 more in property tax revenue generated by this year's increase in assessed valuation in the district.
Superintendent David Tramel said the district's assessed valuation increased from $42.8 million in 2012 to $44 million in 2013.
Prior to its regular August meeting, the New Bloomfield Board of Education conducted a public hearing to set the district's property and real estate tax rate for the coming year. No one appeared at the hearing.
The board set the district's overall real estate property tax rate at $4.3858 per $100 assessed valuation. Tramel said that rate amounts to an increase of 4.46 cents per $100 assessed valuation for the 2013-14 school year. The increase, he said, will produce an extra $37,000 in property and real estate tax revenue for the district.
Tramel said even though the 2.8 percent increase in assessed valuation was more than the benchmark consumer price index increase of 1.7 percent, the actual increase in valuation allowed in calculating the tax rate was only .34 percent or about one-third of 1 percent.
The district's operating tax rate was set at $3.04 per $100 assessed valuation, which is an increase of 4.46 cents over last year.
The district's debt service tax rate was calculated at 1.5761 cents. But the board approved keeping it at the current rate of 1.3452 percent.
Tramel said the district's bond consultant, LJ Hart Co. of St. Louis, had assured him that the current debt service rate was sufficient to service the district's debt for the 2013-14 school year.
The district's overall budget for the 2013-14 school year is about $5.4 million. Of this amount, $1.3 million is raised through local real and personal property taxes and $2.49 million comes from the state's school foundation aid program. The remaining $1.61 million comes from other federal, state and local tax funds that include several hundred miscellaneous sources.
The district's current year's budget remains on track and is well within spending limits.
In other action, Tramel said a fiber optic telephone line used for Internet service at the school was damaged during construction of a sidewalk, knocking out Internet service at the school.
Tramel said it was learned the cable had been installed improperly several years earlier and there is no record of the installer.
He said it was buried only about six inches below the ground when it should have been at least two feet underground. It also was installed in a spiral metal conduit that was not waterproof.
Tramel said it was necessary to rebuild the entire cable system.
The board also discussed drainage problems on the district's new track. That led to discussion of other problems encountered with drainage throughout the district's 50-acre complex.
The board agreed to prepare a request for proposals from area excavation and landscaping firms on how to deal with the drainage problems.
Board member Craig Abbott said the district needs to figure its current costs of maintenance of the grounds and compare that with costs of contracting with a private firm for grounds maintenance.