School Board and Wind Farm Taxes Editorial

By Herb Austin, Publisher, Schuyler County Times

As this coming school year for 2021-2022 approaches, many questions loom.

The wind mills are here, like it or not. One positive note is the new funds they bring to the county. All the county taxing entities, Road and Bridge, County Ambulance, Health Dept, Special Roads, Library, Nursing Home, and The School District will have additional incomes to bolster their meager budgets – soon not to be as meager.

The Schuyler R-1 School District, which receives a little more that 63 percent of the total pot and will receive many thousands, if not millions of dollars per year, as a result.

It is now more important than ever to call on our elected school board for transparency in their plans to allocate these new funds for the betterment and stability of our county education system.

Raises for teachers, building maintenance like HVAC, plumbing, roofing repairs. Lowering the tax base, paying down on current bonds. Technology and equipment upgrades, new softball fields, and other campus maintenance and care. These are items that are being discussed in terms of budgeting and priorities.

With as much money that is coming in, there is no reason many of these items cannot be started at once and implemented in phases over a period of time.

Please, contact your school board members to let them know your feelings on these matters.

As we move forward with this agenda, I am sure we will see timelines, priorities, and plans emerge from the board.

A reminder: the public elected each of you to the school board, because they had faith in you to do the job of maintaining and bettering the education of our kids. Let that public follow your successes through transparency.