Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Rockwood School District's chief financial and legislative affairs officer presented a "where we head now" update at Thursday's Board of Education meeting. Some of the district's HVAC units are older, high-risk units.
With the failure of the $38.4 million no-tax rate increase Proposition S on April 2, many Rockwood School District taxpayers and parents were wondering what to envision for the district's financial future. Rockwood's chief financial and legislative affairs officer Tim Rooney presented a financial overview to the Board of Education directors at Thursday evening's board meeting at Crestview Middle School in Ellisville. Rooney said the budget target, as originally presented Dec. 6, 2012, was $10.9 million. The projected deficit was to be $5.1 million. He said an additional $1 million was needed for maintenance, increasing the capital budget to $2 million. The budget for technology had been $2.5 million, particularly given the estimated needs …
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
VIDEOS: Rockwood voters on Tuesday decided the fate of Proposition S, a $38.4 million no-tax rate increase bond issue, after several months of many public debates about its timing, focus and amount.
A four-sevenths, or 57.14 percent, majority was necessary for passage of Proposition S on April 2 among voters in the Rockwood School District. Prop S was offered as a $38.4 million no-tax rate increase bond initiative that focused on safety, technology and school improvements. The proposition was not passed by voters in Tuesday's election, by a 52.98 percent (9,256 votes) against or NO versus 47.02 percent (8,214 votes) for or YES. That's a difference of 1,042 votes. Rhonda Costa, chair of the "Yes on Prop S" committee, said committee members were most surprised at the degree of negativity that kept boomeranging back. "Every time we tried to move forward, the conversations and focus seemed to drag us back. How can we focus on what our …
Friday, January 11, 2013
Will a no-tax rate increase bond issue for the Rockwood School District be placed on the April ballot? Thursday night, a bond amount of $36.6 million was suggested. Would it be supported by voters?
Four 'Picture Rockwood' co-chairs presented recommendations during Thursday's Board of Education directors' meeting, after a four-month community engagement process to hone in on Rockwood School District's future over the next decade and beyond. Their presentation was consistent with information covered in Monday's two community engagement sessions. One change in the information provided at Thursday's directors' meeting was the amount of the proposed no-tax rate increase bond: $36.6 million. Read this week's Patch two-part series for background and details: 'Picture Rockwood' Feedback Summarized 'Picture Rockwood' Feedback to be Presented Thursday Rockwood's directors said the bond figure is preliminary, and that they have more questions …
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Part 2: Get sneak preview of new findings prior to presentation to Rockwood School District's board of directors Thursday evening. Administrators say district still will be in deficit spending for FY 2014. Safety needs top list of patron support.
Editor's Note: Part 1 of this article previously was published this week as 'Picture Rockwood' Feedback Summarized. That article highlighted findings based on telephone surveys conducted last month. This article continues with other information classified as "key findings" from the entire community engagement process began in September. Picture Rockwood co-chairs will present their recommendations during Thursday's (Jan. 10) Board of Education directors' meeting. The qualitative and quantitative feedback indicated the community-at-large is not ready to move forward with all of the district's stated priorities, but the current focus is on some of the priorities. Rockwood School District Finances' Summary Points from Monday's Public Session…
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Now through Dec. 14, Rockwood School District taxpayers have opportunity to share feedback via telephone survey or online feedback form regarding final summaries chosen to guide district's future strategic direction.
The future direction of Missouri's third largest school district now pivots around two visionary "pictures," which actually are recaps of outcomes based on specific assumptions, revenues and expenditures. A multimonth community engagement process to shape Rockwood School District's strategies moving forward has peaked, and district officials will host the final workshop of the process during the first week of January as they move from Phase 1 to 2 of this overall project. Details of the so-called district "pictures" were supposed to capture broad strategies, not specific action plans, said Rockwood representatives when the project was initiated in October, after Rockwood Board of Education directors approved the project in July. Background…
Friday, April 6, 2012
What cost-cutting steps will be chosen for Rockwood School District now that the Proposition R $43.2M bond measure failed to pass in Tuesday's election? Are the district's gold standards in jeopardy?
Educating students is one of the most important challenges faced by every community in the United States right now, especially when it comes to financing all options people want for children. While a 54 percent majority of Rockwood School District voters supported the $43.2 million Proposition R in Tuesday's election, it fell short of the state’s requirement of 57.14 percent for passage of a bond issue. The deficit in voters was projected to be about 400. See related article from Tuesday night: Rockwood Voters Reject School Bond Measure With Rockwood being approximately the third largest district in Missouri and one of the biggest in the United States, many people now are focused on how Rockwood representatives and taxpayers will …
KM Kramer
10:47 am on Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Hay! They got an "A" for filling the forms out right! Running a large business, such as RSD is, takes more than filing "accurate financial reports". Times are tough, and the lack of oversight of the previous Board in seeing that $1.8 million in over payments weren't made, in hiring an under qualified Superintendent and paying his buddies to help him learn how to do his job are not soon forgotten… more ›