A Letter of Thanks To Our Community:
I wanted to write and thank the taxpayers and community members of Big Sandy for your support of our school district’s recent and successful mill levy election. With the support of our citizens, I am happy to say that the levy passed 186-140. Your support of our mission will ensure that we are able to maintain our programs and services for our students, and that we are able to continue to provide the quality of programming and educational opportunities they require.
Unfortunately, in the past two years inflation has risen 12% and during that same timeframe, our appropriation from the state increased 5.25%. As a result of inflation, we had no choice but to turn to our taxpayers and ask that they support our school district and its programming. During the two years that I have served as your superintendent I have written for grants and have been as fiscally responsible as possible with the public’s funds. Last year I was successful in securing $95,000 in grant funds. On April 15 of this year, I submitted a grant for $1.4 million to upgrade our failing heating system, install new efficient replacement windows in both schools, and install a solar array on the grade school that will save the school district approximately $50,000 per year in electrical costs, beginning on day one of installation. I am honored to do this work in support of our school, its staff and students, and our taxpayers. I look forward to obtaining additional funds for the district.
We will find out this August if the grant that I have written is successfully funded. If so, $1.4 million dollars of facility upgrades and improvements will benefit our school district, without burdening our taxpayers. With the age of our facilities, these efficiency improvements will lower our overall operational costs, ensuring that our resources are better spent on programming, staffing, and providing the students here in Big Sandy with a quality educational experience in facilities that are being actively managed to lengthen their life span.
In closing, please know that we greatly appreciate the ongoing support of our community. In all honesty, we are only as good as the support that we receive for our school district, and here in Big Sandy, we are very blessed.
Respectfully,
Daniel Schrock
Big Sandy School District
Superintendent
