The Virginia School Board Monday, December 14^th, heard a presentation from Business Manager Spencer Aune pertaining to the 2010-2011 School Levy during the Truth in Taxation portion of the meeting. The original levy which was set at the September 28, 2009 meeting at an 8.96 % increase was lowered to a 4.9 % increase, or just over a $60,000 increase from last year’s levy. The Virginia School Board unanimously approved lowering the levy due to updated assumptions and to stabilize it rather than having high spikes from year to year. “There are so many variables that come into play with property wealth actually on the increase over the last year combined with declining enrollment and less revenue from the state which all came into play when making this difficult decision” said Board Chair Dennis Hendricks, and “we must consider the area economics and our constituents.”

Secondary Principal Laverne Hakly introduced and presented board certificates to Senior High student Wesley Stubbs for both academic and athletic achievements accomplished this fall. Wesley received a National Award given by the National Merit Scholarship Program for 2010 earlier but was unable to accept his award because of his participation in the Minnesota State High School Cross Country Meet. Wesley and Emma Carter were selected from over 1.5 million students for this prestigious award (Emma received her award at the November 9^th meeting). During her board report Ms. Hakly talked about the positive results encountered by the elementary staff while using the new Response to Intervention (RTI) program. Her final topic was about many students that are active in our tutoring program helping students in mathematics and English. Ms. Hakly went on to say that our in-house tutoring program will be combined with the “Brainfuse” program which is a 24/7 live tutoring website for high school students in collaboration with the Virginia Public Library.

Superintendent Futterer presented current enrollment figures which show that we have regained students that the district has lost since the first day school. He also reported that 22 staff members have joined the “706 Club” which is part of the Virginia Community Foundation and challenged the teachers in the audience that have not signed up to do so. During his report he talked about the Northeast Service Cooperative insurance grant program for which five school groups have qualified, making a positive health insurance change while lowering costs and keeping good health benefits. Mr. Futterer also commended his Executive Secretary Jane Foster for completing training and being recertified as an election administrator for the school district. 

In other action the board accepted a $3,000 grant from ArcelorMittal for the Roosevelt School forest which is overseen primarily by elementary science staff Chris Holmes and Rick Erickson. In addition, the board accepted a grant in the amount of $1,577 from the Minnesota State High School League to help defray activity fees for lower income families.