Albion voters approve school budget, elect Kast, Kinter and Schmitt to BOE

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 18 June 2020 at 9:59 pm

District had 3 times as many voters as last year

ALBION – The school district’s $36,841,032 million budget passed overwhelmingly, 1,327 to 321, and district voters elected John Kast, Chris Kinter and Kurt Schmitt to the Board of Education.

The district counted absentee ballots today and announced the results tonight. The 1,648 votes for the budget was about three times as many as the 562 who voted for the budget during the last election on May 21, 2019.

This year’s election was done with absentee ballots due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The $36,841,032 school budget is up 3.62 percent or $1,285,522 from the $35,555,510 in 2019-20. However, the budget keeps the tax levy at $8,449,094 in property taxes, the same as in 2019-20. This is the 12th time in the past 14 years the school district has either kept taxes flat or reduced them.

The district’s state aid includes $250,000 for a Covid response. With students out of in-person school since mid-March, some students are expected to need academic intervention services next school year to help catch up. The district is expecting it will need to hire more staff to help students after this prolonged time out of school.

The budget also includes funding for a superintendent’s search with Bonnewell to retire on June 30, 2021. The Board of Education would like to have an interim superintendent to start the school year with Bonnewell switching to a different administrative role in evaluating teachers.

Albion also is budgeting $85,200 for its share of a grant program to replace school doors and add more security cameras. That expense depends on Albion receiving a COPS grant that covers 75 percent of the cost.

• Proposition #2 (Bus Purchase) – 1,314, Yes; 328, No.

The proposition authorizes the district to spend up to $525,000 from the Bus Purchase Reserve Fund to purchase buses for the 2021-2022 school year.

• Proposition #3 (Hoag Library) – 1,128, Yes; 518, No.

This proposition would allow the district to collected $713,000 for Hoag Library. That is down from the $714,920 in 2019-20.

• Board of Education election results, with three seats available:

1. John Kast, 945 votes. He will serve from the election until June 30, 2025.

2. Christopher Kinter, 780 votes. He will serve from July 1, 2020 until June 30, 2025.

3. Kurt Schmitt, 759 votes. He will serve the remainder of a term through June 30, 2021.

4. Marlene Seielstad, 626 votes

5. Joyce Riley, 614 votes

6. Gregg Boose Sr., 426 votes

7. Kevin Doherty, 375 votes