The Atlantic School Board, Wednesday evening approved the FY2020-21 annual Certified Budget. Their action came after a Public Hearing, during which their were no written or spoken comments made. The Budget – which will be submitted to the State prior to April 15th – calls for a tax rate of $14.22 per thousand dollars of taxable assessed value, as compared to $14.72/$1,000, for the current school year (a reduction of 50-cents/$1,000).

In other action, the Board passed a Resolution Levying a tax for FY 2020-21 for the future optional redemption of General Obligation (G.O.) School Bonds, Series 2019. The amount of $195,000 will come from the Debt Service Fund. They also approved four Change Orders/Proposal Requests for the Athletic Facilities Project, and a Pandemic Pay Resolution that allows district employees will continue to receive regular and customary pay, through April 30th.

In their discussion items, the Atlantic School Board heard a District Athletic Facilities update from construction coordinator Bob Sweeney, Snyder and Associates Engineers Dave Sturm and FRK Architects’ Primary Tom Wollan. Sweeney told the Board “Construction continues to move forward at both the Trojan Bowl and the Baseball/Softball Complex. Crews have done a very nice job of rotating locations to avoid having too many people at any one site or location” (Per social distancing rules).

Sweeney said the Facilities Committee has raised a little more than half of the $600,000 needed to pay for the synthetic turf at the Trojan Bowl. Thanks to a $50,000 kick-starter donation from Rolling Hills Bank & Trust. A $100,000 matching grant donation challenge from the Atlantic Bottling Company was met and exceeded, with $135,000 donated. The match deadline was March 31st. Sweeney say the donations came from 80 individuals/businesses Current fundraising amounts to $326,000, with additional funds received Wednesday, not yet having officially been added to the total.

And, Superintendent Steve Barber said the District is on-track to engage in its voluntary Continuous Learning Plan, Monday, April 13th. The District’s website has a section specifically marked for COVID-19 learning on the front of its homepage. Inside the section, is a link to “Online Learning Opportunities and Resources.” There will also be Dept. Of Education and AEA resources. The website will be continuously updated throughout the closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, until, according to Barber, “We get to some normalcy down the road here.”