Schools get first JTED tax dollars

The money has started rolling in.

Five high schools throughout Mohave and La Paz counties — including Lake Havasu High School — have received their first chunk of funding from taxes that voters approved in November 2008 to support a new educational school district.

In December, the Western Arizona Vocational Education (WAVE) district doled out $520,000 received from the first property tax collection; each high school received $130,000.

“I feel so fortunate in these very economically stressful times,” said Shawna Schneikart, Career and Technical Education coordinator for the Lake Havasu Unified School District. “I feel very lucky that we are given the opportunity to sustain and improve our programs and this is much needed help in a time when our economy needs work place boosting.”

LHHS is expected to purchase cameras and editing equipment for the audio and visual classes, software and robotic parts for the computer systems and web page classes, additional furniture for the drafting class, tool carts and tire machines for the automotive class, and a playground shade cover for the early childhood class, according to Schneikart.

She said about 1,100 students of the high school’s roughly 2,000 take a CTE class.

The taxes collected were slightly higher than expected, according to Betsy Parker, WAVE superintendent.

“We were really pleased,” Parker said. “We were worried about the default ratio, with people not paying on their taxes. It appears the default is not as bad (as we thought).”

Parker said the funding had to be specifically used for CTE classes, and the schools will receive two more payments this year, with the next payment expected by the end of March.

Additional funding does come from the state general fund budget, Parker said, but the district hasn’t received all of the payments because of the unbalanced state budget. She said about two-thirds of the $520,000 came from local taxes.

Voters formed the Joint Technical Educational District to enhance career and technical classes, such as fashion, marketing, automotive, and drafting, at the high schools. The district officially formed in July 2009 and the partnership allows shared space, equipment and staff between all of the school districts involved and the local community college.

“Oh my gosh, it was so exciting,” Parker said about handing out those first checks. “The voters did such a great job supporting us. It was really great to be able to start to give the money back.”

You may contact the reporter at jleatherman@havasunews.com