Tax Abatement Payment Helps Cardinal Schools
Pay-to-participate changes remain in place for 2017
In a show of goodwill and support of Cardinal Schools, Chem Technologies Ltd. CEO Jim Schill presented a check for $60,000 to district Superintendent Scott Hunt on Feb. 14.
The check will provide a modicum of breathing space for the district, which has projected a razor-thin bottom line in June, the end of its fiscal year.
“We feel very fortunate Chem Technologies was able to provide us with a check for $60,000,” Hunt said following the check presentation ceremony at Middlefield Municipal Center.
The infusion of cash will go straight into the district’s general fund to provide a small financial cushion come June, said Hunt.
“This does not save us in any way, shape or form,” he added. “However, with $1,100 projected to be in the bank come June, this certainly helps pad our general fund.”
The $60,000 represents the value of a 10-year tax abatement Middlefield Village gave Chem Tech when it bought farmland on the southeast corner of state Routes 87 and 528 for expansion of its Middlefield facility.
“It will help with the short-term cash flow problem at the schools,” said village Mayor Ben Garlich, who attended the ceremony along with Cardinal Schools Board of Education member Linda Smallwood.
Garlich, who endorsed passage of Cardinal’s 5.5-mill levy in May, also complimented Schill on the quality of the two new 36,000-square-foot buildings on the corner.
Schill said he plans to build five more of equal size to accommodate the growth of Chem Technologies, a company he founded. And, while the the roofline of the two connected structures appears to be slanted, he said by the time five more buildings of equal size are added it will be peaked in the middle and better balanced.
The donation also will not affect pay-to-participate, Hunt explained.
Due to the cloudy financial forecast, the school board recently increased pay-to-participate fees to cover all coaching and transportation costs, a move that could threaten the spring sports of baseball, track and softball as well as the spring musical.
Donations from alumni and other team fundraising activities are helping pay for the spring sports and musical, but passage of the levy is still essential to the district.
