The West Central Valley School Board met in regular session Wednesday.

The meeting began with a public hearing on the fiscal year 2020 budget. No comments were made and the Board approved adopting the budget, which projects a property tax of $14 per $1,000 of valuated property, on trend with the last few years. The Board also approved a budget guarantee resolution, as well as maximizing the tax levy at $4.05 for the general obligation bonds that were issued in 2016 for the high school building. Superintendent Lance Ridgely comments on this increase, “We’re looking to pay off our bonds sooner and in essence save the District several thousand dollars, I mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in doing that. I can’t take credit for that, that’s a process that the District has been doing for several years now to set us up. We’re looking at being able to retire the bonds in the very near future, which would be a very good step forward for us financially as a District.”

During the regular meeting the Board discussed the 2018 financial audit, approved sharing their high school boys soccer program with Nodaway Valley, approved the 2019-2020 school calendar, awarded a contract for the north fenceline project, and held an exempt session for negotiations strategy with the West Central Valley Education Association. You can hear more about the meeting in today’s Let’s Talk Guthrie County with Ridgely on air and at raccoonvalleyradio.com.