The Gainesville City School Board learned more about the Westside Tax Allocation District that several city schools are included in.
Gainesville City Manager Brian Lackey explained the TAD to board members and Superintendent Jeremy Williams at their meeting Monday night, answering a series of questions ranging from explanation of how the funds are spent to what exactly the TAD covers.
"What the TAD would do is cap the money earned from a tax collection stand point, so the TAD would then take that amount of money and invest it into site improvements, facade, street improvements and so forth. It's just us being in tune with the city council, walking step in step with them to help improve some areas that right now may be blighted or unsightly," said Williams.
The TAD funds are specifically for projects of public interest, with Lackey explaining previously that it covers "anything on the outside that has a public benefit;" the TAD funds are also a reimbursement after the project is completed. Click through the photos to see a map of the TAD.
As for how the GCSS students and families that live in the Westside TAD could be impacted, Williams said it depends on the property owner.
"If the property owner is talking about minor improvements, it wouldn't impact them at all. But if a property owner is talking about a tear-down and rebuild, then that would out a great impact on our students, whether that's displacements, whether that's other services we need to provide. I would assume the majority of those projects are on a smaller scale, and not be a tear-down rebuild with some supports," said Williams after the meeting. "It would have to be on a case by case basis. Since we have three members that sit on the committee, it would be something we would be heavily involved in, and since the percentage of funds that would be used is capped at 12 percent, it wouldn't be a lot of funds that go into the project, it would be something we'd want to make sure our students are taken care of."
Williams said after the meeting that one thing of note was that the schools themselves would not be getting a pieces of the TAD pie. "Only because then, you're talking about a government entity using funds that does not collect any taxes, so we would not be able to use the TAD."
Following the extensive TAD discussion, Williams shared the results of the October Listening Sessions. He said they were able to strike two potential projects from the charts after hearing parent and community feedback.
"We realized that, from a sixth grade academy standpoint, parents don't want a lot of transitions. They want to be consistent. However, at the same time, we know there are almost 1,900 students at our middle school, one of the more popular directions was going to two middle schools," said Williams. "Then we would be looking at two middle schools with one high school, two middle schools with two high schools, and where a career academy fits in there as well."
Next, Williams said they would be using focus groups - which have not been formed yet - to get more specific about the ideas presented.
