SINCE
2006
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5
From the Desk of the Superintendent
By Mike Cooper NC Superintendent
I hope everyone had a great summer and I wanted to touch base with you as the new school year begins as we are very excited about the direction of our district and appreciate all the strong support we have received. September 10th is Election Day and I want to thank all of those who are running for school board positions in our district. School board members donate their time and talents to give our district direction and more purpose and I appreciate all that they do for us with a spirit of volunteerism. As you exercise your right to vote on September 10th, I want to explain some of the other items you will be seeing on the ballot. Our voter approve PPEL is up for renewal at the same tax rate that has been assessed in our district for quite some time. I want everyone to understand that this is a renewal of the same rate and not an increase. Overall our tax rate went down from last year to this year around .80. PPEL is a tax that is put before the voters of the district every ten years. PPEL stands for Physical Plant and Equipment Levy. It is with these funds that we use for building projects including renovations, remodeling, replacing equipment etc. We also use these funds for purchasing buses, school vehicles, and maintaining our fleet. If we did not have these funds we would have to take money out of the general fund for these so it gives us a funding source for rather expensive necessities in the district. For example, we used PPEL funds to replace a boiler in our middle school, air conditioning unit in the high school, new student desks and tables, as well as adding new concrete to some of our parking lots. This fund will also help us pay for our new 6 lane track in Stanwood. I hope this helps you make a decision on Election Day regarding this renewal. The other item you will see is for the approval of our Revenue Purp ose Statement. This is a document that defines how we can use our sales tax funds which are called SAVE funds. Voters have to approve how we use this money generated with sales tax. This statement, if approved, would allow us to use SAVE funds to purchase technology. Currently we are working on providing classroom sets of IPads for our elementary students and beginning in 2014-15, our students in grades 7-12 will each be issued an Apple Air laptop to use for their education. SAVE funds give us a source of money to use to do this with and it is very valuable to us. SAVE funds can also be used to pay off debt and “I want this is also very important to us and allows us to use funds outeveryone to side the general fund. SAVE funds understand are also used for a wide variety of things similar to the PPEL that this is a funds and this Revenue Purpose Statement allows the district renewal of the flexibility when spending money from this fund for a variety of same rate and purposes. Again, we appreciate all the support you give us and know how increase.” important our role in serving the student, families, and communities of our district is. We will continually attempt to upgrade and elevate our skills that will improve the level at which our students achieve. IT’S GREAT TO BE A KNIGHT! Mike Cooper Superintendent North Cedar Community School District.
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