CL School Board proposes keeping tax rate steady

by Marianne Gasaway

The Clear Lake School Board will hold a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 9, on its proposed 2019-20 school budget.

The proposed district budget maintains the school district’s tax asking at $10.39 per $1,000 of assessed property valuation.  That rate is the same as it used for its 2017-18 and 2018-19 budgets.

Superintendent Doug Gee explained district overspending which occurred prior to 2017 has been resolved and some positions were eliminated through early retirement, leaving the district in good financial position.

“A lot of it was utilizing all funds like SAVE/PPEL and managing  correctly and carefully watching our spending,” said Gee.  “The other thing that has helped is our increase in open enrollment into the district (50 students last year),  along with key community donations that has helped increase our revenue while we decreased expense.  What is amazing is while we have been doing this, we have been able to add a Computer Science program a Project Lead The Way Launch program and adding AG/FFA next year.”