The Maries R-1 School District’s tax levy remained just about the same as last year’s levy.

At the R-1 School Board’s August meeting, before the regular meeting the board met for the tax rate hearing. The rate was set at $3.7512, which is .0006 more than the previous school year. Of the new levy $3.3112 is the incidental/teacher levy and the debt service levy remains at $0.4400.

The district’s assessed valuation increased about 707,150 from last year. The assessor reported new construction/improvements of $611,760.

The incidental/teachers levy is budgeted to generate tax revenue of $1,977,770 for the school district. This numbers assume 100 percent tax collection. The debt service levy is budgeted to generate tax revenue of 262,811 for a total local tax revenue for the R-1 School District of $2,240,583.

R-1 Superintendent Mark Parker presented the financial report at the regular board meeting. August Formula/CTF revenue was $95,350.58, which he said is back to the level it was before the state made cuts because of the Covid-19 coronavirus impact on the state’s economy and tax revenues. Prop C money in August was $41,559.82, and transportation revenue was $6,005.

Electricity costs for August were $5,637.15, which is about $800 less than in August last year. Parker attributes the decline to the LED lighting project which has brought energy savings seen each month, and also because the summer was milder than usual. Also, it could be without having students and staff in the building there was less body heat inside.

Board member Mike Kleffner asked about the summer school incentives received by students. Parker said this was an incentive given to students who continued to learn virtually. This will be reimbursed to the school when it receives the summer school reimbursement from the state, when they turn in the district’s ADA. Parker said the summer school incentives of $50 to students totaled $3,775.

Also at the school board meeting, the board adopted the Code of Ethics Policy BBFA, and adopted a policy update for sexual harassment under Title IX, an update needed to be in compliance with the new law that went into effect Aug. 14, 2020.