Tecumseh School Board calls for election of pool millage renewal

The Tecumseh School Board voted to call for election on March 8, 2016, to renew the 0.25 millage for the indoor pool located at Tecumseh Middle School.

The board passed the call for election unanimously at Monday’s meeting with members Steven Linn and Greg Johnson absent.

The March 8 vote was selected because the ballot language would read the millage is a renewal. If the vote were held after May, the language title would read the millage was an increase though clarify in the language the millage was once previously approved. With the March 8 election, the district shares cost of putting the millage on the ballot.

The millage generates approximately $140,000 a year, according to Tecumseh Public Schools Supt. Kelly Coffin. A home with a taxable value of $50,000 will pay $12.50.

“Do we have a list of the things that we’ve done with this money over the last five years,” asked Edward Tritt, board president. “Me, as a voter, I would be more inclined to vote on it to say, ‘wow they did this, this, this, this and this over the course of five years with that money,’ and I would be more inclined to renew it if I knew where the money was going.”

Coffin said Friends of the Tecumseh Community Memorial Pool were working on those communications.

Previously, funding for pool operations came from the general fund.

“The pool is one of those places where it’s much more costly to run than other programs in our school system,” said board member Jim Rice. “It has a big drain on the general fund. Plus, the big drain on the general fund was never enough to really keep the pool up and running like it should have, which is probably the reason why we have to do all these repairs and stuff now, because the money was never there to really keep it going as it should have been.”

Recent upgrades to the pool include a $63,210 after cooler system.

In March, TPS Director of Facilities Michael Smith said the current Dectron System could not maintain the pool’s temperature of 78-82 degrees during the summer months. In late May to early June, the increased air temperatures drive water temperatures up to 84-90 degrees, which then heats the air and makes it difficult to maintain a consistent pool environment, Smith said.

The after cooler unit approved for installation is designed to cool 20 gallons of water per minute of 100-degree water to 80 degrees.

Ballot language for the pool millage will be approved at the board’s next meeting on December 14.

During building updates, Tecumseh High School Principal Griff Mills informed the board that last year’s junior ACT (American College Testing) scores were the highest in the school’s history with an average of 22.2 out of 36.

“We’re at the top of the list in the county,” Mills added.

The ACT also scores college readiness, with about 28 percent of students meeting the standards, Mills said. He added, “We’re pretty significantly above everybody else in terms of that.”

Next year, students will be taking the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test).

In other business, the board:

• Discussed the annual summer tax resolution with action scheduled for December 15