By Patrick Tepoorten

In a year in which taxpayers are staring down the barrel of significant tax increases at the city and county level, there was welcome news from the North Branch Area School District at the Sept. 13 school board meeting. School district taxes are going down in 2008.

The proposed school district levy is expected to decrease roughly 7.5 percent, due exclusively to adjustments made to prior year calculations. According to district Finance Director Randi Johnson, timely tax payments and the interest accrued, health and safety projects that came in below projection, and the district's levying of 105 percent of obligations led to the decrease.

Leftover fund balance in debt service, due primarily to timely tax payments and accrued interest, and tax abatements, amounted to $468,918, allowing the district to reduce its debt service levy by almost 9.7 percent.

Likewise, savings over estimates to health and safety projects completed over the last year resulted in a $216,368 savings to taxpayers. When combined with various increases, the 2007 levy, payable in 2008, is reduced by $482,997.

In real dollars, the district will levy $5.9 million, down from $6.4 million last year.

The district has scheduled a Truth in Taxation hearing for Nov. 29, with a continuation on Dec. 13 if necessary. The final levy must be approved by the school board before Dec. 27.

In other news:

• Enrollment for the current school year is 3808, 90 less than last year, and 103 less than projected for the current year.

• Superintendent Deb Henton reported that the district is busy "drilling down to each individual student" in an effort to overcome difficulties with state standards testing, which has led to many conversations with teachers and administrators that she described as "rich, robust, and sobering."

She also noted that future success will depend on parents as well as the district, and cautioned employees and leadership against negativity. "We need to be careful about talking about a lack of parental involvement," she said, and added that, in her experience, district parents are very involved with their children's education, whether or not they come to meetings.

• A plan to offer a health savings account or VEBA for district employees not covered by a collective bargaining agreement was approved.

• The System Accountability Report, an annual document the district must provide the state, was approved.