School board approves $280,000 budget for lid bill exemption campaign

With the countywide vote on Homewood's requested lid bill exemption only a few weeks away, the Homewood Board of Education passed a resolution at its Oct. 16 meeting funding up to $280,000 for efforts to campaign for the exemption.

The lid bill exemption, which the school system and city have been working toward for two years, would release Homewood from the cap on property tax rates in Alabama, allowing the city to hold citywide votes in the future to consider property tax increases. Part of Homewood residents' property taxes pay for the school system, along with some of the city sales tax and state and federal funds.

Superintendent Bill Cleveland and City Council members have been advocating for the lid bill exemption in Homewood as the Nov. 6 election draws closer. The exemption will be listed as Local Amendment 1 and will be at the bottom of all Jefferson County ballots, and a majority of voters must approve it in order for the exemption to go into effect.

Cleveland said Tuesday that the $280,000 budget will be used for polling and research among Jefferson County voters, as well as marketing efforts such as mailers, signs and possibly local media advertisements.

He said public money can be spent by the school system for the good of the students.

Alabama Attorney General opinion 2003-232 states that public school systems can expend public funds or use public property to advocate for an issue or initiative if the local or state board of education "determine[s] that this expenditure serves a public purpose." 

Though city officials have repeatedly said no vote to raise property taxes is planned, Cleveland said putting control of that decision in Homewood's hands rather than a state cap would have "a significant impact" on Homewood's students due to the potential for future revenue if needed.

The BOE also briefly referenced an incident last week that caused Homewood High to temporarily go on lockdown. In an interview at a Homewood Middle School PTO meeting earlier on Tuesday, Cleveland said the lockdown on Wednesday, Oct. 10, was caused by a senior student who told the school that they thought they saw a gun in the vehicle of the person who dropped them off.

Though there was missing information and no guarantee that the threat was real, Cleveland said the school system chose to move forward as if it was real until they knew otherwise.

“There’s only one way for us to play that, and that is, ‘The student that dropped you off had a gun.’ You can always work back from there, but it’s not good to work up,” Cleveland said.

HHS was placed on lockdown and a number of police arrived on campus to guard entrances and search for a possible threat. Cleveland said school resource officers and principals at the other Homewood schools were also notified.

The police made an arrest about an hour later, Cleveland said, at a student's home. The gun turned out to be a pellet or BB gun, but "you can’t take those things lightly at this time.”

Cleveland said he appreciated the work of the police and the high school in resolving the issue and said notice went out to parents about two hours after the lockdown started. He declined to provide more details about the arrest, as the investigation into the incident is still active.

Also at the Oct. 16 meeting, the BOE:

• Approved change order requests that amend the cost of ongoing construction work throughout the schools. The changes add $9,691 to the first package of elementary school work, $11,840 to the Homewood Middle School construction package, $4,804 for work at Waldrop Stadium and $25,438 for the contract for an HVAC control system for all HCS buildings.
• Renewed two technology licenses, paying $37,442 for Microsoft software and $26,879 for Renaissance Learning software.
• Approved a $2,000 building support supplement adjustment for Homewood High staff member Rebecca Keith. The BOE said this is a normal supplement that the school system pays but was mistakenly left out of previous supplement funding.
• Approved field trips for the Homewood High School marching band to perform in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in November and for the Network show choir to travel to two competitions in February.
• Approved the school system's Continuous Improvement Plans, as required by state law.
• Nominated BOE member Judy Truitt as the school system's delegate to the Alabama Association of School Boards (AASB) convention, with BOE member Charlie Douthit named as alternate.
• Considered changes to the board's DJEA policy, which governs procedures around procuring contracts related to federal programs, but took no action.

The next BOE meeting will be Nov. 13 at 7 p.m.