The AJC reports that the DeKalb School Board approved funding cuts – including $1.9 million for Fernbank Science Center – and a 1 mill tax increase at a meeting yesterday.
Lots more info over at the AJC.
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I didn’t grow up to be a scientist and I don’t have kids, but I would be willing to help Fernbank Science Center in any direct way one of you smart people may know about. Whether that would mean helping to fund a position or program that was cut, whatever. But I would like to give directly to them rather than having any money be funneled thru that crazy school system. Any ideas?
Jill and Rach, that idea makes a lot of sense and reminds me of the Smithsonian’s funding formula. About 3/4 of SI’s funds are federal allocations and the rest are private trust funds generated by commerce (shops, merchandise, branding, tours, workshops, etc) and donations/sponsorships.
Thank you for valuing what Fernbank Science Center does!! I believe there are people working toward setting up an infrastructure, like a foundation, that will allow Fernbank look for targetted external funding. If you call the science center directly, 678-874-7102, and let them know your basic idea, you will be connected to someone who can work with you.
Fabulous, thank you!
Speaking of taxes, (sorry for the awkward segue but there’s not a FFAF thread today), new property tax reassessments for 2012 are showing up on the DeKalb County Tax Commissioner site: web.co.dekalb.ga.us/TaxCommissioner/TCSearch.asp. Some have received mailed notices as well. Ours was changed back to last year’s total assessment value on the website but we have not gotten the mailed notice yet. It looks like many on our street had the same reassessment to last year’s value.
To find if your property was reassessed for 2012 already, search for your property then click “Additional Property”. Look to see whether “Appeal Status” indicates “BTA Change in Value–New Notice Mailed”. The new value, if there is one, will be listed under “Current Appraised and Assessment Value”. I’ll be curious what proportion of us got reassessments and whether they went down or up and if they mostly reset to last year’s value.
I’m a much happier camper now. We had not yet filed our BOE appeal but were going to.
Thank you, AHID! Preparing my appeal was weighing down my to-do list for the weekend. My record shows a new notice has been mailed, so maybe it won’t be necessary.
Yippee for all us whose assessments have gone back to normal! Of course, the appraisal now says the my house is worth pennies compared to the still inflated land cost. I have to admit that my son’s trashed room alone might warrant that low a value! But the overall property value is the same as last year and I’ll take that.
Well, cutting half the budget for Fernbank isn’t ideal, but at least it’s not being cut altogether.
#begratefulforsmallfavors
I think they should get some yellow caution no-entry tape and rope off 1/2 of the exhibits, 1/2 of the classrooms, and 1/2 of the planetarium. You can now observe 1/2 of the Milky Way but not the other.
I’m not thrilled about the budget cut, obviously, but I kind of get the feeling that ultimately this will result in FSC getting significantly more money to work with than they were getting from the county. It’s certainly caused people to rally around them. Heck, they could set up a Kickstarter account right now and probably rake in some pretty healthy donations. With three-month-old twin boys who we can’t wait to take to check out FSC’s planetarium, observatory and other delights on a regular basis, I know we’ll be contributing.