Hoover school board calls for property tax increase election

The Hoover school board had a busy night tonight, passing a resolution seeking an election on a property tax increase for schools, discussing classroom additions at two schools and approving a raise for classified employees.

The school board voted unanimously to ask the Hoover City Council to seek permission from the Legislature to call for an election to raise Class 2 property taxes by 2.4 mills for Hoover residents, with the proceeds going to the school system.

Hoover residents in Jefferson County now pay 72.6 mills of property taxes, and this would increase that amount to the maximum of 75 mills currently allowed. Hoover residents in Shelby County would see their property tax rate climb from 66.5 mills to 68.9 mills. The difference between the two counties is due to different county taxes.

A 2.4-mill increase would amount to an extra $24 a year for a $100,000 home or $72 a year for a $300,000 home.

School board President Craig Kelley said the school board is going to have some major capital expenditures down the road and must be prepared to deal with those. It is not yet known whether that will include a third high school, he said.

A 2.4-mill property tax increase would bring in an estimated $3.6 million per year for Hoover City Schools, Kelley said. While that’s not a lot of money, every bit helps, he said.

Hoover Councilman Derrick Murphy, who was at tonight’s school board meeting, said numerous steps must be taken before a property tax increase could take effect. First, the Hoover City Council would have to ask the Legislature for authority to call for an election to raise the taxes. Murphy said he would seek to have this put on the council agenda for a first reading on Nov. 19 and a vote on Dec. 3 about whether to seek involvement by legislators.

If the resolution were approved by the council, a bill would have to be approved by the Legislature for the council to be able to call for an election. Voters would have the final say as to whether property taxes were raised.

All of that is just step one, Kelley said. A second step, if taken later, could seek a constitutional amendment that would allow Hoover to raise property taxes above the current cap of 75 mills, he said. That process likely would take two years and would involve voters across Jefferson County, not just in Hoover, he said.

Homewood tried to go over the current cap of 75 mills in the most recent election, but Jefferson County voters said no to that idea.

Former Hoover Councilman Jody Patterson said the Homewood effort failed because a majority of people in Jefferson County do not want any more taxes passed for any reason.

“We want all of government to tighten up, spend wisely,” Patterson said. “Realize government will never be everything to everyone.”

CLASSROOM ADDITIONS

Hoover schools Superintendent Kathy Murphy tonight shared plans for $14.1 million worth of capital projects that she said will be needed in the near future. Those include an 18-classroom addition at Berry Middle School that is expected to cost $7.5 million, an eight-classroom addition at Bluff Park Elementary School that is expected to cost $5.7 million and the demolition of certain older buildings on the Bluff Park campus and renovation of others, which is expected to cost about $920,000 combined.

The Berry Middle School classroom addition, which would include six classrooms on three levels, is the most critical one, Murphy said. She expects to ask the school board to move forward with that project in December, she said. The Bluff Park project probably won’t be far behind it, she said.

School officials realize that people in Bluff Park are passionate about their community and the Bluff Park school, and want to be respectful with the historic nature of parts of that school campus, Murphy said.

The proposal is to keep and renovate the older portion of the buildings along Park Avenue, including the cafetorium, and tear down the other buildings not currently being used to make room for new construction and additional parking, she said.

Over time, the buildings have been compromised, and school officials don’t think it’s a wise investment to put money into some of the buildings, she said.

Other schools such as Riverchase and Gwin elementary schools and Simmons Middle School are on a “watch” list for potential classroom additions. School officials also are watching capacity at Hoover High School, which could spur another addition there or a third high school, Murphy said. Also, there is a push in the community for a fine arts center that could be a school system project, a city project or a collaborative effort if it comes about, she said.

PAY RAISES

In other business tonight, the school board approved salary increases for support personnel, such as nutrition workers, custodians, secretaries, bookkeepers, registrars, bus drivers and maintenance workers.

A school system committee recommended the raises because the school district has been losing employees to other systems that pay better, Chief Financial Officer Tina Hancock said.

The 2019 budget passed by the school board on Sept. 11 included $1.43 million to cover the proposed salary and benefit increases for support personnel.

The federal government will pick up the $407,000 tab for nutrition workers, but the other $1.13 million will have to come from the general fund, Hancock said.

A particular problem has been that employees who stay with Hoover for more than 10 years have not been eligible for an annual raise unless the state Legislature approves a raise, Hancock said. Therefore, Hoover is losing experienced employees who see they can make more money elsewhere, she said.

In the last school year, Hoover City Schools lost 20 of their 98 custodians, which is a 21 percent turnover rate, Superintendent Kathy Murphy said. The system also lost 19 percent of its child nutrition workers, 17 percent of its bookkeepers, 15 percent of its transportation employees, 11 percent of operations employees and eight percent of its secretaries, she said.

The salary committee looked at pay in the Alabaster, Jefferson County, Homewood, Huntsville, Pelham, Shelby County, Trussville, Tuscaloosa and Vestavia Hills school districts for comparison and made recommendations that should put Hoover in the middle of those districts, Hancock said.

The big question was whether the school system can afford the raises and sustain them over the long term, Murphy has said.

A 4 percent raise passed by the state Legislature for all school employees in fiscal year 2016 cost the school district $2.88 million more than the state funded because Hoover pays its employees more than the state salary schedule, she said. Similarly, a 2.5 percent state raise in fiscal year 2019 cost $1.5 million more than the state funded.

There is talk that the Legislature could approve another pay raise for school employees for fiscal year 2020, Murphy said.

But state raises do nothing to close the gap between what Hoover and other systems pay classified employees, she said.

The vote to approve the pay increases was 4-1, with board member Kermit Kendrick casting the sole no vote.

Kendrick said he is for school employees, but he had trouble voting for this pay increase when the school system just ended fiscal 2018 with an overall $2.7 million deficit and is forecasting a $13.5 million deficit for fiscal 2019.

Hancock noted the $2.7 million that had to be pulled from reserves for 2018 went toward a one-time capital project — the Riverchase Career Connection Center.  The operating budget actually ended in the black, she said.

The superintendent said the school system is not spending money that it doesn’t have. It’s just going into reserves to cover costs. And those reserves received a $27.5 million boost in fiscal 2017.

The school district always aspires to live within its means, but she’s OK with pulling money from reserves for important projects like the skilled trades center, she said.

Kelley said the school district values its employees very much and the pay increase was needed to retain them.

“It’s very expensive for us to lose our experienced employees and then have to train again,” he said. “We’ve basically been losing experience to surrounding districts. They’re taking our talent.”

Madge Irish, the bookkeeper for the athletic department at Hoover High School, said she was elated about the pay increase. “It’s been a long time coming.”

Employees who have been topped out now have something to which they can look forward, Irish said. Most of them live in Hoover and love working for Hoover schools, she said.

“We don’t want to go to another school system for just a salary,” but economic conditions made a growing number of people choose that route, Irish said. It also was hard to attract new people because nearby school districts were paying more, she said.

The school board also tonight agreed to move forward with refinancing warrants the school system issued in 2010. The school system should save $7.9 million with the refinancing, Murphy said.

The board considered whether to borrow an additional $12 million for capital projects, but Murphy decided not to ask the board to go that route.

This story was updated with additional information about pay raises and the refinancing of school warrants at 10:13 p.m. and again at 10 a.m. on Nov. 15 to indicate that the 2.4-mill increase would impact residents in both Jefferson and Shelby counties and to indicate that the current property tax rate for Hoover residents in Shelby County is 66.5 mills.