BOE to seek funding talks

The Cannon County Board of Education wants to talk about its Fiscal Year 2017-2018 budget with the Cannon County Commission.

To that end, they are asking to be placed on the agenda of the commission's Aug. 3 meeting.

The main issues are 4 cents for the school's tax rate, and what amount, if any, the school's will contribute to education debt service this year.

The FY2017-18 budget the commission approved at its July 20 meeting set the school's portion of the tax rate at 84 cents. The school system sought an 88 cents tax rate.

At a meeting Monday night, school board member Nathan Sanders made the motion that "we leave our budget at 88 cents with zero for school debt service and ask to be on the agenda for the Aug. 3 county commission meeting."

Board chairman Bruce Daniel seconded the motion. All board members, including Shelly Walkup, Javin Fann and Tim Powers, voted in favor.

The county commission approved a budget on July 20 which has the school system paying $250,000 toward the Education Debt Fund this fiscal year. They also approved transferring $100,000 from the General Debt Service Fund to the Education Debt Fund.