Donated land could be ‘good future campus site’
By GEORGIA PURDY

The Jasper Independent School Board of Trustees approved the acceptance of a 23.310-acre track of land donated by the T.L.L. Temple Foundation at their regular meeting Monday night.

Acting Superintendent Bill Dean said that the tract, located across from Jasper High School on the west side of FM 252, is a “good future site for a campus”. No plans have been made for building at this time.

Dean also said that The City of Jasper is accepting a five-acre tract as a future proposed site for a new City Public Library.

The Board also adopted the 2006 Tax Roll Resolution for the district. The appraisal roll is for amounts totaling &7,581,621.57. Included in the 1006 roll is an estimated tax of $490,807.38 that is not yet available for certification.

Acting Finance Director Carolyn Foster said that while there is a loss of timber value due to Hurricane Rita, mineral values are up significantly.

Commercial property also up in value and there is some increase in individual households.

“The appraised value is up about $30 million, which should result in about a half a million dollars in revenue,” Foster said.

Other Board actions included approval of purchasing a standby generator in the amount of $17,630.

It is needed, Foster said, as part of the district’s emergency preparedness.

The new generator will automatically start during a power failure and run for 24 hours, giving school personnel time, for example, to secure and turn off or connect to other backup sources of power for computers and other equipment.

Also approved was a new student data management software program in the amount of $12,730.

The program will be used to track student academic progress as well as testing.

Child Nutrition Department Director Kim Malone reported that Food Service has received some grant money for new equipment and that the Texas Department of Agriculture has issued some new nutritional guidelines; however, she said that Jasper schools already exceed most of these.