The Jackson County School System is looking toward the next referendum on education sales tax revenue — possibly in 2011.
The current education special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) expires in March 2012 and benefits all three school systems in Jackson County.
“We cannot afford — we do not want — that thing to expire without us getting ready for it,” said Shannon Adams, superintendent of the Jackson County School System Thursday.
The education SPLOST is different from another SPLOST that voters will decide Nov. 2 to fund projects for Jackson County and its nine cities. That SPLOST is a six-year program that is expected to generate a total of $47.5 million, which will fund jail debt service, roads, recreation and satellite EMS facilities for the county.
For schools, the education SPLOST will be a five-year sales tax that would start collecting revenue in 2012, if approved by voters. Essentially, it is an extension of the current education SPLOST.
There are two possible dates to hold a referendum for the education SPLOST — March 15 or Nov. 8, 2011, Adams said.
Adams said he has met with Jefferson City Schools superintendent John Jackson and Commerce City Schools superintendent James “Mac” McCoy about the proposal.
On Thursday, Adams said they were favoring the March 2011 referendum date, but Tuesday, he said in a statement that the districts haven’t discussed the specifics of the upcoming referendum.
“Each date has some pluses and minuses,” Adams at Thursday’s meeting of the Jackson County Board of Education.
A November referendum would fall on a general election day and there’s no telling what could also be on the ballot to get voters to the polls, he explained.
The education SPLOST is divided into three broad categories for funding: 75 percent for construction projects, 12.5 percent for technology and 12.5 percent for emergency maintenance.
For the Jackson County School System, the current education SPLOST is expected to generate $63 million in revenue over its five-year life.
That money, so far, has been used for a number of projects at each school in the district — including SmartBoards, and technology and security upgrades just in 2009. It has also been used to build Gum Springs Elementary School, and add new classes at North Jackson Elementary School and East Jackson Middle School.
The school system also plans to use sales tax revenue to build a second gym, and a combined chorus/drama building at Jackson County Comprehensive High School.
The current education SPLOST passed overwhelmingly with 90 percent of voters approving the measure in 2006.
Also Thursday, the board approved its 2011 fiscal year general fund budget for $85.8 million — a three-percent drop from 2010’s budget of $89.2 million.
The board had previously adopted a tentative budget for the 2010-2011 school year and approved a $11.5 Tax Anticipation Note (TAN) until it started receiving property tax revenue. So far, the school system has made two draws on that short-term loan totaling less than $2 million. The school system must repay the TAN by Dec. 31.
The Jackson County School System is benefiting from a new federal stimulus program, called the Education Jobs Fund, which gave districts money for teacher salaries. The school system will receive $1.4 million from that program, but no money from another federal stimulus — the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 — in the 2011 fiscal year budget.
Overall, local property tax revenue is expected to dip by $2.9 million — from $34.4 million to $31.4 million.
The school system ended the 2010 fiscal year budget in June with a $3.3 million surplus and expects to end the 2011 fiscal year budget with $4.4 million in reserve.
