Jennifer Perry Middleton/Jefferson Jimplecute
Jefferson Independent School District has filed a formal protest with the Texas Comptroller’s Office over the Comptroller’s non-certification of the 2022 appraisal role. The Comptorller believes the tax appraisals for the 2022 calendar year, or the 2022-23 school year, were less than the actual value of the properties, leaving the school in a $1.1 million budget deficit.
The Comptroller believes the role is approximately $300 million under actual market value as compared to 2021 calendar year appraisal role.
Superintendent Michael Walker said that JISD had hired the Perdue Law Firm, one of the best in the state, to represent them and lobby on their behalf in an attempt to recoup some of the funding.
“This is not just happening here,”’ he told the board of trustees during Tuesday’s regular meeting. “It’s happening all over the state.”
Walker went on to explain that it is happening because properties are appraised at a higher value than they are selling for, and that leaves the district in a bind.
Ann Lummus, chief appraiser at the Marion Central Appraisal District, told trustees Tuesday that she was sorry how the situation had come about, and explained the detailed and complicated process of how the state sets the appraisal amounts. She also said there were several errors in the valuations her office had identified and hopes when those corrections are made, it would put the valuations back in a range the Comptroller’s office would accept. But, that determination would not be made until August.
Mike Wood, JISD’s financial officer, stated that the district had some reserves of federal funding that could be used in place of the deficit, and that hopefully the issue would be resolved and the funds could be used for something else.
“I don’t think we will be in too bad of shape,” he said. “We will be pretty close to breaking even and that depends on what happens the rest of the year.”
In other business, the board voted to enter a joint agreement with the City of Jefferson and Marion County for elections and to share an election administrator and polling locations.
Board President Leah Cooper said that even if the district wasn’t holding an election, that it would make things simpler for voters if they agreed to be a part of the agreement.
“It’s easier on the public not having to go to vote in two places,” she said.
In other business, trustees approved three innovative curriculum courses at the high school campus. These include General Employability Skills, Kinesiology II and Dental Equipment and Procedures. Kinesiology and dental are part of health science career pathways, which have been successful courses at the high school, according to Dr. Leah Phillips, JISD’s chief academic officer. She went on to state that the GES class teaches soft skills such as completing a resume, arriving to work on time and workplace adaptability and is specifically geared toward students in life skills classes. The Kinesiology II class would help students earn a personal trainer certification and the Dental Equipment class would help them to receive dental assistant certification. She added that there has been a lot of interest in the classes from this year’s juniors who wish to take their skills to the next level.
Phillips also gave a report on the district’s progress measures as they relate to the board’s goals, specifically reading in the elementary grades. She said that administrators have been impressed with the progress, and that students were almost meeting, or had met, the district’s goals for the year.
Trustees also approved a Grow Your Own program, which gives long-term substitutes and paraprofessionals working in the district the opportunity to apply for stipends to pay for college tuition or an alternative teacher certification program. Applicants for the 2023-24 program would have to be nominated by their principal and complete the process to be considered for the recruitment and retention program.
Patti Wallace, area manager for Linebarger Attorneys at Law, also gave a presentation on the properties to be sold in the upcoming tax sale, which will be held at 10 a.m., March 7 at the downtown fountain. She said there are four different city lots included in the sale. The next sale will be in May, and she added that they will have many more properties offered at that time.
The 2023-24 school calendar was also approved during Tuesday’s meeting. The staff at all campuses, along with the Site Based Decision Making Committee considered several variations of the calendar. It includes a start date of August 14, fall break on Oct. 16-17, Thanksgiving from Nov. 20-24, Christmas break from Dec. 18 to Jan. 3, spring break from March 11-15, 2024, and an end date of May 23, 2024.
The next regular meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 14.