NELL HOLCOMB APPROVES TAX HIKE OF 23 CENTS

Taxpayers in the Nell Holcomb R-4 School District will pay more this year in taxes.

The district Board of Education Tuesday approved a tax hike of 23 cents for the 1991-1992 fiscal year, which started July 1. Overall the tax rate per $100 of assessed valuation increased from $2.96 to $3.19, said district Superintendent David Fuemmeler.

Apportioned, 87 cents will go to the district's general fund, $2.11 will go to the special reserve fund, and 21 cents will be spent for debt service, said Fuemmeler.

Board members approved the tax rate following a tax rate hearing. Fuemmeler said no one in attendance asked any questions about the rate.

The assessed valuation of the Nell Holcomb District for the 1991-1992 fiscal year is about $18.33 million, Fuemmeler said. The Proposition C roll back for the year, he said, is 48 cents.

"Last year we had a roll back of 72 cents because our sales tax revenue (the preceding year) was higher," he said. Sales tax figures for the district between the two years were not immediately available.

School board members approved the district's budget in June. The budget has expenditures and receipts of about $1.5 million, Fuemmeler said.

At this time, he said, the budget is only tentative. Fuemmeler said the district is still waiting on an audited report on the district's attendance and enrollment for the 1990-1991 school year.

Money is distributed to the district based on its attendance and enrollment figures and those figures have to be verified by auditors each year, he said. "We can get a final figure once those are approved."

On a separate motion Tuesday, he said, board members decided to keep offering full-day kindergarten classes in the coming school year, rather than half-day classes. The district's school year starts Sept. 3.

"We were concerned about enrollment figures and space limitations primarily," Fuemmeler said, "but it looks like we'll have the extra room available." He said the district had an enrollment decrease in fifth grade.

Enrollment in fifth grade dropped from 38 to either 33 or 34, said Fuemmeler. The superintendent estimated the district's two kindergarten classes would each have about 17 to 20 students.

Fuemmeler said the school board Tuesday also decided to keep the district's lunch prices the same as last year. Lunches will cost 80 cents for students and $1.10 for teachers. Reduced lunches are 40 cents.