Laptop plan's future on hold until Tuesday

By Times staff writers

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 28, 2000

BROOKSVILLE -- The fate of a project to put laptop computers in the hands of sixth-graders at Fox Chapel and Parrott middle schools will remain up in the air until Tuesday night. A shorthanded School Board, with only three of its five board members present, could not reach a conclusion on the direction it will take with a $200,000 plan to introduce laptops to 180 middle school students. Board member John Druzbick, who was attending a family funeral, and Robert Wiggins, who was ill, missed the final discussion on the laptops before Tuesday night's deciding vote. Of the three remaining board members, Chairman Jim Malcolm opposes the program, Jerry Milby favors it and Sandra Nicholson is teetering on the fence. Malcolm said the money could be better spent this year on improving reading in the middle and high schools. Milby says the laptops will make school more relevant for students and that the reading initiative, though important, doesn't need more money. Nicholson said she is undecided but leaning toward supporting laptops.

Schools plan to increase property tax rate cut

The school tax rate cut promised to homeowners in Hernando County this year will be a little better than first predicted. School officials said Thursday that the property tax rate will drop by nearly 3 percent. Earlier in the summer, using only estimates of the property tax rolls in the county, school officials said the rate would likely fall by 2.3 percent. In technical terms, that represents a new school millage rate of 10.176. Last year's rate was 10.482. A mill represents $1 of tax for each $1,000 of assessed, non-exempt property. Provided that a home is not reassessed at a higher value, the millage rate cut means the owner of a $50,000 home who has the $25,000 homestead exemption would pay $254.40, a savings of $7.65 from last year. School board members tentatively approved the new rate Thursday night.

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