[06/13/02]Schools here will be seeking an additional $2 million from local taxpayers for the upcoming year to fund raises for teachers and to make up for shortfalls from the state.

The Vicksburg Warren School Board of Trustees will hold its required public meeting at 5 p.m. June 20 at the library at Warren Central Junior High School where a $61 million spending plan will be unveiled. Of that, about $20 million is to come from taxes on property in Warren County including homes, vehicles, businesses and industries.

To generate that much money, a $2.1 million increase from this year, supervisors will, once the budget is formally adopted, be required to increase the rate used to calculate property taxes by 3.74 mills. Without homestead exemption or other credits, the raise means $3.74 for every $1,000 of assessed value starting Jan 1.

It will be the second consecutive year for a record tax increase for the district, created in 1988, and now serving about 9,000 students.

Superintendent Donald Oakes said about $700,000 of the new money will be needed to fund teacher pay raises awarded earlier this month by the school board.

“For two years now all I’ve heard is we need to do something about education,” Oakes said. “Well, now we’re trying to do something.”

The local raises for certified teachers are $1,000 across the board along with $300 for teachers aides.

In another boost, the state is funding 6 percent raises for minimum-program teachers as this year’s installment, the third in a six-year plan to increase average teacher pay by $9,000.

There are about 575 teachers working for the district, but not all are covered by the state. Supplemental teachers are funded entirely by the district funds.

“(The state is) not giving us as much as we thought they would,” Oakes said.

Sen. Mike Chaney, R-Vicksburg, said the Legislature deserves credit, not criticism, for increasing school funding.

“We’ve done a superb job in funding education despite the governor and lieutenant governor,” Chaney said.

Another reason given by school officials for the tax increase is to supplement the state-mandated Mississippi Adequate Education Program. The program provides equal funding to districts throughout the state based on average daily attendance, but was not fully funded by the Legislature this past session because of budget problems.

“Part of that requires each district to show that they are supporting the program locally,” Oakes said.

Chaney said that if legislators had not worked to find more funding for education, school districts like the Vicksburg Warren district would have been short $800,000 more.

“We could do more, but we’ve done a fairly good job for education when compared to other budget,” Chaney said.

For years before the last school year, the district held the line on rate increases, seeing its local revenue grow naturally through a reappraisal, higher property values and new construction.

The 2001 increase was 4 percent, the maximum allowed by law without giving citizens the right to petition the district to have a referendum on the increase.

This year’s increase surpasses 7 percent, the point at which a referendum would normally be required, but the Legislature exempted districts from that law this year because of the shortfall in the Adequate Education Program.

The total millage rate for the school is projected to be 50.05 for tax bills that will go out in December. State law does set a cap of 55 mills for schools.