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Some school directors chip in toward rent hike

By Erik Siemers and Dan Casciato, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, May 20, 2004
Several Baldwin-Whitehall School Board members have decided to chip in their own cash to help pay a rent hike at the Baldwin Library.

"We'll make sure you're covered for the first year of the rent increase," school board President John Palmiere told library board President Laverne Oberle.

The school board last month raised lease rates for school buildings by 5 percent over the next two years, making the library pay about an extra $1,000 over that time. The library's annual rate, which had been $10,080, will increase by $1,033 over the next two years, Oberle has said.

School board members this week pledged to raise $400 from their own pockets to pay the increase for a year. Board Vice President John Schmotzer said board members Michael Stelmasczyk and Paul Homer each pledged around $100 and he expects to chip in around $200 unless more board members volunteer to pay the difference.

"I thought it was a generous offer they did but it has not solved the problem for next year," Oberle said Thursday.

Oberle asked the board to reconsider the rent increase entirely.

School board member Kevin Fischer, Palmiere, Schmotzer and Dana Etzel-Hardman last month backed a motion to exempt the library from the increase, a motion that failed, Fischer said.

Schmotzer said that once the decision was made to raise the rent, they couldn't exempt the library because others also rent parts of the building and it wouldn't be fair to make an exception for just one tenant.

The board agreed to address the building issues at the Wallace School, including a mice problem and a leak district officials believe is caused by an air-conditioning unit.


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