The Bethel-Tate Board of Education met in a special session on Thursday, Aug. 6 to approve a resolution asking the board of elections to put a 4.3 mill tax levy on the ballot in November.
“We basically had two options,” said finance committee chair Pam Sandker. “We could have asked for an earned income tax or a property tax. After looking over all the figures, we decided that an earned income tax was not going to work. The last time we asked voters to approve a 5.9 mill levy, but with the current economy we had to come up with something that would work for both the public and the schools.”
She noted that one of the main concerns was bringing back high school busing, she also said that the teachers agreeing to a pay freeze this year helped the budget for the coming year but the cuts in state funding were an issue. The financing that has been coming from the state is expected to decline in the next few years making the local schools even more financially responsible.