School board gives nod to community subcommittee to maintain public input on district finances
by Charli Engelhorn
contributing writer
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The Grand County Board of Education has unanimously approved the formation of a Community Financial Advisory Subcommittee. The decision was made during the board’s April 21 meeting.

The subcommittee, which will include members of the Moab business community and an educator, will review the school budget with Grand County School District Business Administrator Robert Farnsworth and help oversee the phasing in of a voted leeway if the measure is approved by voters in June.

Moab businessman Joe Kingsley, who represented the Moab Chamber of Commerce and the Moab Rotary at the meeting, explained that the committee would meet four times a year to review the tax rate from the district’s capital outlay fund, the tax rate from the leeway, and the budget. The subcommittee’s aim will be to make sure the balance between the two funds is matched in a way that would minimize the overall impact on the taxpayer, Kingsley said.

Kingsley said that the Chamber and Rotary would support the leeway if the board approved the committee as a legitimate advisory council to the school board.

“I’m on record now of supporting the leeway if this subcommittee is formed,” Kingsley said.

Farnsworth said he plans to have a preliminary budget ready for the committee by mid-May so that the school district can get input from the committee. “I think it will be a positive thing to have input,” Farnsworth said. “The more people we can get educated about school finance the better. It will provide a different point of view and open everything wide up.”

The voted leeway is set at a rate of .0016 percent, the maximum amount the board felt necessary to safeguard the district from a future funding crisis. However, school board members said they believe the tax increase will be phased in slowly, and the district may never need to increase taxes to the maximum amount.

Grand County School District Superintendent Margaret Hopkin also discussed the wording for the leeway. Hopkin noted that a paragraph that states, “A vote in favor of this tax means that the district can increase revenue from this property tax without advertising this increase for the next five years” is required by state code, but she said the language may confuse voters.

“This does not mean we will be increasing taxes without limits,” Hopkin said. “This means that in the event we only use a small percentage of the allotted tax rate, we may increase it to another percentage within the .0016 rate throughout the next five years.”

A member of the Moab-based group Parent Advocates for Grand Education (PAGE), told school board members that PAGE also supports the subcommittee and the leeway. She said PAGE members feel the subcommittee will “help bridge the gap” between the community and the board.

Members of the subcommittee will include John Fogg, Ryon Jones, Tom Lacey, Kate Cannon, Joe Kingsley, and Donna Metzler, school board officials said.
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