COMMUNITY 4 | OUR COLUMNISTS 5 | YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS 6
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VOL. 6, NO. 42
OCTOBER 15, 2011
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All-out spirit!
Remember to return ballots
Crowning the queen
to the Union County Chamber of Commerce by Oct. 21!
By Cindy Taylor Last week at Union County High School, celebrity look-a-likes, rednecks and strangely dressed students from all classes roamed the halls in everything from poodle skirts to sequined attire. It was time for the annual school Spirit Week, and students did not disappoint as they showed up to imitate their favorite celebrities or decade icons. All in all, Spirit Week was the essence of school spirit as students went all out for their school.
Sunset Bay Homeowners meet See Cindy’s story on page 4
FEATURED COLUMNIST LYNN HUTTON
God, the bowerbird Celebrating creation See page 5
Down the rabbit hole with UCHS drama
Union County High School’s Homecoming Queen candidates gather for a photo before the big game. They are: (front) Laura Smith, Samantha Russell, Kendal Rouse; (middle row) Kayla Conner, Krista Foust, Haven Housewright, Crissy Bradshaw; (back) Samantha Violet, Allison Padgett, Madison Snyder, Kylie Ruiz and Tori Barkman.
Union County High School Homecoming Queen Haven Housewright is crowned at the Homecoming football game by 2010 Homecoming Queen Taylor Brown. Housewright raised $8,033 for the school softball team. See page 2 for more scenes from Union County High School’s Spirit Week. Photos submitted
See more photos page A-2
Commission approves $65,589 school shortfall Coppock: Schools will be broke by May
See page 6
By Cindy Taylor
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School funding was still a key issue at the Oct. 10 Union County Commission meeting. Due to the specific cuts that were made by the school board, the budget for Union County Public Schools, though balanced, left the county short of meeting Maintenance of Effort on the first level by more than $112,000. Jack Broyles from the Tennessee Department of Education was present and explained that if average daily attendance did not drop, the MOE could be figured on the second level. This would cause the county to only be short of meeting MOE by $65,589. The commission needed to find a way to fund the school system another $65,589 from the county budget. Two hours into the discussion, Commissioner Dean Hill stepped up to the plate. “I don’t see that we have a choice here,” said Hill. “We can argue all night, but we are being told by a representative from the state that we must do this.” Hill then made a motion to fund the school system the $65,589, but when commissioners continued to argue about where the money would come from Hill amended his motion to take the funds from TVA funds. The motion
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Union County Trustee Gina Buckner looks over figures with Glenn Coppock, business manager of Union County Public Schools. Photo by C. Taylor was seconded but failed for lack of a majority vote. Mayor Mike Williams called for a break, during which he asked Union County Trustee Gina Buckner and County Attorney David Myers to review county revenue and project what a 1 percent property tax increase would accomplish. Myers agreed that legally the $65,589 could be added to the county budget in the form of projected revenue at 92 percent, an increase over last year of .07 percent. “The school board would have to amend their budget to raise those projections,” said Myers. “Then the commission must act to include the amendment projections into its current year budget.” Union County Public Schools business manager Glenn Coppock did not see this as a reasonable solution,
stating that the school board had already projected revenue in their budget at 92 percent, and that was beyond what had actually come in the past year. Their increase would have to be 94.5 percent to equal what County Commission wanted. The school board would need to vote on whether to inflate those figures. After more deliberation, Commissioner Janet Holloway made a motion to increase projected revenue from taxes by 1 percent. This motion was seconded and approved. Then, the commission voted to approve the 2011-2012 county budgets for all departments, funds, offices and agencies. This included the budget presented by the school board Sept. 29. The county budget passed unanimously and will be sent to the Comptroller’s Office
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in Nashville where it will be approved or rejected and returned. “County Commission is forcing us to approve a budget that is not going to work long term,” said Coppock after the meeting. “It will work until about May, and then we will be broke. We currently have around $9,000 in our cash balance and bills due that we can’t pay. The commission has put us in a spot to where we either vote on the budget they passed tonight or we close the schools.” “We can deal with this right now or we can deal with this in May,” said school board chair Brian Oaks after the meeting. Oaks said that the school board worked for weeks to bring a balanced budget to the commission and did that Sept. 29 by making major cuts in salaries, insurance, buses and many other areas. “When our balanced budget caused them (commission) to be short on their MOE, they turned around and looked for ways to keep from paying that $65,589 into the school budget,” Oaks continued. “The mayor keeps insisting that the county is bailing us out, but if we inflate our revenue numbers as the county is asking us to do, it looks to me like it is now the school system that would be bailing the county out.” Mayor Mike Williams said that his office is working as quickly as possible to get the
budget mailed to the state and hopes to send it to the Comptroller on Wednesday, Darrell Dyer spoke to the commission about trains that are parked on tracks and blocking roadways. According to Dyer, this happens more than once each week. “This is a problem in the 2nd District at Donahue Road and Clinch Mountain Road,” said Dyer. “Trains often block the road all day.” Dyer said that he was told by a conductor that he would not block the road on Saturdays but he would do it any other time he wanted to. “There was a kid who got off the school bus last week and had to crawl under the train that was parked across the road to get home,” said Dyer. The commission agreed to look into the problem and take the necessary steps to resolve the issue. The commission passed a resolution to apply for a grant for the restoration of the historic Oak Grove School to be used as a trailhead for those visiting the Chuck Swan Wildlife Management Area, as well as other recreational trails in the vicinity of the school. The building would be available for other community uses as well. Union County Commission meets at 7 p.m. the second Monday of each month in the large courtroom. Contact Cindy Taylor: brentcindyt@ gmail.com.
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