No one commented at the first of the public hearings over the millage rate for the Gainesville City Schools FY19 budget Monday.
The millage rate is technically a tax increase because it is staying the same. "When you keep a millage rate the same, the tax payers want to know 'how will my taxes going to change,' so by keeping the same millage rate it will be no increase or decrease based on their assessment," said Superintendent Dr. Jeremy Williams. "Though it is an increase over the rollback rate, overall the millage rate will be staying the same. We take it as a positive sign that what we're doing as a school system is heading in the right direction."
The next meeting will take place June 18, at 11:30 a.m. at the school board central office; a final meeting will take place June 18 at 6 p.m. at the Gainesville public safety complex.
Later in the day, at the school board work session, the board gave first reading approval to adding language to the JCDAA Student Tobacco Use and GAN Employee Tobacco Use policies regarding e-cigarette, vapes and other tobacco devices. Dr. Williams said they were updating the language to keep their campuses tobacco free. "Anytime you talk about e-cigarettes, students are going to be students and they're going to try and chance things. Some times you'll be able to catch them and sometimes not. No matter which campus you go to, across the nation, you're going to have students that are smoking. Our job is to make sure we're providing that safe environment."
