‘One person at a time’

Related Photos

Cullman County Board of Education Superintendent Billy Coleman addresses a small crowd at an informational meeting Tuesday night in regards to the proposed half-cent sales tax for education. Amanda Shavers-Davis

Discussion

February 2, 2012

Sparse turnout at first half-cent tax community meeting

By Trent Moore The Cullman Times The Cullman Times Thu Feb 02, 2012, 01:59 PM CST

CULLMAN — As the old adage goes: Every vote counts.

The Cullman County Board of Education kicked off the first of a dozen community meetings about the proposed countywide half-cent sales tax for education Tuesday night to a relatively sparse crowd at the central office. Two community members came out, and Superintendent Billy Coleman delivered his presentation to a total crowd of four, including a school official and Times reporter.

But, Coleman said he wasn’t discouraged by the low attendance. Instead, he is proud of the fact that the system is making the initiative, and he still believes the series will pick up steam once meetings begin in different corners of the county.

“The important thing is that we do this, and the fact that we’re having it,” Coleman said. “That’s just as important as who attends these meetings. We want to make an impact one person at a time.”

Coleman discussed why the system believes the tax is necessary, and broke down how the potential revenue would be spent.

The gatherings are the latest in a recent string of efforts to encourage community engagement, including a newsletter and quarterly community meetings about general education issues.

“We’re trying everything we can to do a great job of communicating,” Coleman said. “In general, education isn’t really set up to where it’s easy to let people in, but we need to be.”

Coleman noted Cullman County is among the bottom half of school systems in the state in regards to local tax support — ranked 84th of 132 systems with $580 per student. If the tax were to pass, the county system would move up to around 55th in the state with $888 per student.

A spending chart showed 60 percent of the revenue would go toward curriculum for projects such at technical support, art, enrichment and a proposed ROTC program. The remaining 40 percent would be split evenly between maintenance needs and local school projects.

“When federal and state is low, those local figures become more powerful,” Coleman said. “When the economy is struggling like it is now, that can be much more profound. Our kids are just as worthy of that same kind of local support.”

Though the group receiving the presentation may have been small, the message did not fall on deaf ears.

West Point resident Michael Jones said he supports the tax, and left Tuesday night with the facts to support his position.

“When I came in I was for it, but I really wanted to see how the money would be spent,” he said. “Now, when I hear people talking about it in the community, I can share the information.”

School board candidate Steve Link, who is seeking the West Point seat, said he attended to learn more about the tax, as well as the issues facing the system.

“I’m not trying to convince myself to vote either way, but I’ve been to two of these [including a preliminary meeting] and I’m really trying to get a sense for how the community feels about it,” he said. “It’s very informative, and actually clears up a lot of the misconceptions.”

A full slate of meetings have been scheduled for the next two months, and Coleman said he hopes voters will be open to learning more about the tax before the March 13 referendum vote.