Eric Bruder speaks with St. Joseph Post.
Photo by Nadia Thacker
After being sworn in at the newest member of the St. Joseph School District Board of Education Monday night Eric Bruder took a stance on placing a .63 cent tax levy on the August ballot.
During the meeting Bruder referred to placing the issue up for voter approval in four months “suicide.”
“What I mean by that is that I think the ballot is important but I think the timing of this in August is totally wrong,” Bruder said. “The public needs to see that actions have been taken properly on the State Auditor’s report in each case that those have been corrected. They need to see that we have the administration headed in the right direction as far as accountability is concerned not just with the audit but from an accounting and financial perspective. Once that’s done I know the public will more than support whatever tax levy is needed.”
Bruder said he’s advocating that the vote get put off long enough that there’s buy-in from the whole school district.
“A big part of what needs to be done is determine whether what’s needed is 63-cents or 48-cents or 72-cents…That needs to be determined by a thorough run-through of the budget itself,” Bruder said. “I’m not advocating that that vote gets put off from August to April but more along the lines that it gets put off long enough that one that it’s in the school district so you get complete buy-in and complete involvement by all the students and parents and teachers that work in the administration while school’s on-going.”
A loss of the operating levy would cost the district almost $6.5 million dollars.
“I think it’s important that all those issues get addressed and then we’ll determine what needs to be done and then I think when the public has full confidence in the administration, the district and the board that it’ll move forward where it needs to go,” said Bruder.
Bruder said he feels his addition to the school board will give the board a fresh look at issues they are faced with.
“I think the board members are fantastic it’s a good group of people but I always think that a fresh perspective is good,” Bruder said. “Someone who doesn’t know everything and have been involved in everything is always healthy.”