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Show Ids School Uofie By TOM BUSSELBERG FARMINGTON The Davis School Board has set a voter leeway election for Oct. 2. AT THAT time, voters will have to decide if they want to give the board authorization to impose a three mill levy, one that would add about $19 a-year a-year to the tax for the homeowner homeow-ner of a $60,000 home. Voters defeated a four mill proposal last November by a fairly narrow margin, but the board is hoping this time to "better educate" the public to the need for such funds. The funding would come not only from local tax dollars, that could bring in upwards of $ 1 .2 million to help the financially-troubles financially-troubles district but would provide additional funds from state sources. UNDER STATE law, districts dis-tricts can levy two mills and receive state support. That could add at least $800,000 in state funding, or bring the total up to more than $2 million. Davis District is the only district along the Wasatch Front except for Weber that has not imposed a voter leeway. The district has felt a need for such extra monies because be-cause of the prospect federal impact aid funds could be severely se-verely cut. THAT FUNDING has been received by Davis and other districts as "in lieu of tax" money for those students whose parents live and-or work on a federal installation, such as Hill Air Force Base. President Carter has said he wants to effectively axe that funding source to Davis and elsewhere a source that could provide additional revenues re-venues of more than $1 million. mil-lion. In the board's Tuesday night meeting in Farmington, however, Supt. Lawrence Welling sounded what has been the first positive hope for such funding in months. He said that in conversations with federal officials in Washington, Washing-ton, including Utah Rep. Gun McKay's office, much of the funding could be retained. WHILE A final decision may not be made by Congress and sent to the President for action before October, that office and others told the superintendent su-perintendent much of the "A" funding could be retained. Funding for federal installations installa-tions is broken down into "A" where parents live and work on base, for instance, while "B" funding covers only those working on base but living elsewhere. Supt. Welling and others had feared the district could lose $1.2 million in funding from the "A" sources alone. And while the possibility exists ex-ists the funding, or a portion of it, may be retained, board members and administration still deemed it wise to ask for voter support in additional taxes. IF THE funding is not approved, or a large portion denied, the district could be in financial trouble. A once multi-million dollar surplus several sever-al years ago had swindled to virtually nothing $9,000 at the beginning of the fiscal year July 1 and that could be easily easi-ly wiped out. Originally, the board had planned to limit the election to only two mills the amount for which a state guarantee would be forthcoming. But Board Member Sheryl Allen asked it be upped to three not only to provide additional security should it be needed, but with the chance the Legislature Legisl-ature could raise its guaranteed guaran-teed support another mill. COMMENT FROM several in the audience pointed to support sup-port of an additional mill, with one man on a fixed income saying he would rather pay an added $6 to insure a quality education than stay with two mills. Board Member Dee Forbes resisted the move to three mills, initially, but later . joined the board in a unanimous unani-mous vote supporting the three mills. Should the election pass in October, funding would not be available from that source until the 1981-82 school year beginning begin-ning July 1, 1981. That could still mean rough times for the district if the impact aid monies are not approved. The board was also faced with whether it should approve an emergency three mill levy to provide immediate funding for this fiscal year come payment pay-ment of taxes later in the fail. Under that measure, the district dis-trict would not receive any financial support from the Legislature. Leg-islature. It set a Friday 8 a.m. meeting to further consider that matter. THAT LAWMAKING body has approved a district asking for up to four mills emergency funding should impact aid monies be lost. This is the first time Davis District has had to consider such a move. It could be put into effect for a maximum max-imum of three years. Realizing the financial dilemma that could face the district, officials held meetings with a select group of citizens from throughout the county earlier this year in an effort to determine where the belt could be tightened. THE BOARD later approved cuts totalling $1.6 million affecting some student programs and classroom size, for example. Those cuts included in-cluded raising the average classroom size by at least one student, eliminating football from the junior high boys' program and levying a string class fee for elementary school participants. - But administration officials have said there isn't any more room to trim the program. SHOULD IMPACT aid monies be approved sufficiently sufficient-ly large to cover immediate district needs of $1.2 million that could come in "A" funding, fund-ing, for instance, then the district dis-trict would be mandated by law to "return" the three mill emergency tax. That would be done by lowering the tax bill next year. |