Let’s Talk Newton- Newton School Superintendent Tom Messinger

0:00Welcome to today's Let's Talk Newton Powered by the Nice School Raceway at Randy Van and joining us today is the School Superintendent Tom Dessinger. Tom, appreciate your time as always and their school board meeting this week and I had the public hearing on the proposed tax levy. Good news is that district looks like they're going to lower the levy by about 8 cents, but bad news is a lot of people's assessments went up, so the tax bill is still probably going to go up. Now that is one of those difficult ones to grasp. There are a few different areas that the school district can fluctuate a little bit. One of those areas that we had to increase slightly with the management fund and that is with the rising insurance costs. A couple of things to highlight the district is working to pay down the debt on Berg Middle School early to save a considerable amount of interest there.

1:01And then as you mentioned, the tax rate is going to be down slightly. Now one thing to keep in mind is that the hearing last night on that tax levy is not setting the levy in stone, that's just the maximum amount that the school district could levy in the end and with the final decision yet to be made. There's still a time if you have questions, contact Tim Bloom or myself here at the district office and we can get those questions answered for you. And actually this morning, Tim was working with Kelly Sorensen and Christine Dawson to get some information communicated out. There's a tool that you can go in there and you can put in your old assessed valuation on your home and the new assessed valuation and you can see exactly what your tax levy

2:03would be using that tool. So that will be posted and communicated out by the district here by the end of the day. And the levy adoption, is that for the actual approval, is that the next meeting coming up? Yes, it will be April 13th. And also that will be the meeting where you'll make a move on the calendar for the final part of the year and also there's been talk about possibly renaming the elementary schools that we are going to continue using, that will be on that agenda as well, right? Yes, to start with, you mentioned the calendar and that is one that there's a public hearing that night. There will be some changes to the calendar. There have been three days that schools have been canceled due to inclement weather. And so we'll be communicating that out to what the calendar proposal will be. And then at the April 13th board meeting, not only is there public hearing, but also the board will be asked to approve the end of the year calendar for the current school

3:06year. Okay. And then with the renaming, this is a topic that I know is an emotional topic. You know, it was mentioned back when this process all first began of, do a renaming the buildings. The board is not determining a name that night by any means. The decision in front of the board that night is, are we interested in pursuing renaming the two elementary buildings will be using down the road or not. There was some information that needed to be gathered and we were not able to get all the information from the school attorneys, but that will be collected yet this week and then placed on the next agenda as well to determine, do we want to pursue this or not? Okay. That's April 13th and that will be coming up. Yes. And also a couple of construction items who want to address the awning at Thomas Jefferson

4:10and the bleachers out at H.A. Lynn's stadiums and progress being made there. Yes. For a long time now, it seems like we've been saying, you know, things are on hold. At Thomas Jefferson, the reason for that was, of course, obviously, we're using that building this year. The over spring break, they did complete the awning on the outside of the building there. And it really, I had some character to the main entry point. Now that site is back on hold until school is out for the summer and then construction will pick back up. Construction is ongoing at the Aurora Heights location. Some of the remodel work is being done as well as windows and electrical and plumbing in the new addition piece. So a lot of the work there, you're not able to see because it's on the interior side

5:13but then another area that we've been on hold for for a little while now, that realistically, you're going to see progress being made from now up until probably the end of May first part of June. And that is at our football stadium. The dirt work had all been completed and then yesterday and today they're pouring the concrete slab there. And we're still set to take possession of the bleachers, the first week of May. And then those will be installed with the press box on the visitor side and we're anticipating that being wrapped up right around the end of May first part of June. All right. Again, April 13th. We mentioned some items that will be on that agenda as well. You can always check out the agendas on the district's website as well. That's right. Thanks for your time again today. Appreciate it. Not a problem. Thank you, Randy.

6:14As always, we greatly appreciate you helping us get the word out about the things going on around the district. Glad to do it. That's an excellent Superintendent Tom Nessinger joining us again on today's Let's Talk Newton powered by the NISEL Raceway. Make the short drive down highway 14 for the best dirt track racing around at the strength car capital of the world. If you missed any of our Let's Talk programs, you can find it online daily at cannacareless.com or wherever you subscribe to your podcast. For your next race, let's talk Newton.