Franklin School Board President Brian Spaid announced Monday that the district is eyeing a 2019-20 budget that doesn’t include a tax hike.
“The budget is a work in progress but there is no anticipated tax increase,” Spaid said at Monday’s school board meeting.
The budget will include major capital projects such as the window replacement work at Victory and Sandycreek elementary schools and unexpected asphalt work at Sandycreek.
Spaid said preliminary numbers could be available to board members as early as their next meeting on April 29.
The budget must be approved by the end of June.
In other business at Monday’s meeting, Thomas Holoman, the acting principal at Sandycreek and Victory, presented district teachers of the year with a balloon and certificate.
Teachers were nominated by their peers with one teacher chosen from each school.
The honorees were:
– Ashley Phillips, second grade at Central Elementary
– Megan Hiles, special education at Sandycreek Elementary
– Karen Lemkee, reading specialist at Victory Elementary
– Amber Martino, special education at Franklin Junior/Senior High School
The district-wide Teacher of the Year will be announced April 25.
School board member Misty Nalepa applauded junior/senior high school principal Christina Cohlhepp and those who organized a recent assembly entitled “Hang Up and Drive.”
Nalepa said her child, who is a student at the high school, has been worried about the dangers surrounding cell phone distractions while at the wheel since the assembly and said that other students she’d been in contact with were similarly mindful.
“It definitely hit home,” Nalepa said.
Nalepa also said she was excited to learn that the upcoming assembly on intoxicated driving will be given by Vernon Hilyer, whose son, Brandon, was killed in a drunk driving accident in 2008.
Cohlhepp said the recent assemblies have been effective.
“We’re not trying to scare (the students), we’re just trying to keep them safe,” she said.
Superintendent Pamela Dye announced that kindergarten registration for the district currently sits at 110 students for the three schools – 23 for Victory, 49 for Central and 38 for Sandycreek.
Buildings and grounds director Leon Billingsley said ruts from almost 30 buses that were parked at the high school Saturday have been ironed out of the school’s front lawn.
Billingsley said at least 27 buses jammed into the parking lot for a track and field invitational, softball game and baseball game.
