DAYTON, Tenn. – Rhea County school board members have adopted a budget for the coming year and agreed to purchase four school buses.
At the board’s recent meeting, Director of School Jerry Levengood told board members that Rhea could cooperate with Grundy County to purchase three 78-passenger buses for $75,983 each and about $70,000 for a smaller bus, a savings of nearly 25 percent on the estimated cost of the vehicles.
The mo-tion to buy the buses was based on a request that the money be taken from Tennessee Valley Authority impact funds on hand – about $200,000 – with the balance to be borrowed from the board’s fund balance and repaid when additional TVA funds are received in November.
Board members approved their 2010-11 budget, totaling $29 million, to be submitted for approval to the County Commission. The budget includes $25.2 million for general school operations, $2.1 million for food service and $1.7 million for transportation.
During the board’s workshop, Commissioners Bill Hollin and Emmaly Fisher invited board members’ help to persuade commission members to support their efforts to have the state Legislature impose a wheel tax to fund school construction and highway improvements.
Fisher has said the wheel tax, which would be added on whenever someone registers a car, should be about $30, with $26.50 going to support school construction and $3.50 would fund the highway department.
Hollin said he had no firm figure in mind for the wheel tax, but it should be enough to pay for construction of a new high school and renovation of the existing high school for use as a junior high.
He also said he “would like to put $5 on there for roads.”
The county “cannot pave roads on the (current) budget … and I know buses run over some rough roads,” Hollin said.
He pointed out that 92 percent of Rhea County residents own vehicles while only 43 percent own property, another tax that helps pay for schools.
“The way I look at it, there are a lot of people in (public housing) that have two vehicles and have children in school,” he said. “They ought to have the responsibility to help pay for education.”