By Carolyn Cole/Staff Writer

Heavy rains and wind tore at El Reno schools’ patched and repatched facilities, leading officials to send an SOS to lawmakers for “equitable funding.”

While the value of taxable property inside the El Reno School District increased in 2007 by about 6 percent to $48.98 million, Superintendent Ranet Tippens said the small increase in revenue and bonding capacity it generates won’t begin to cover costs to make repairs to school facilities.

“That is going to take another big bite into building, maintenance and the budget,” she said.

El Reno’s property valuation per student ratio is $18,559 or just more than half of the state average at $33,063 per student. The district is at the very bottom of the barrel in Oklahoma in terms of property tax revenue and bonding ability to cover costs of repairing and building facilities and for purchasing computers and equipment for students to use.

Assistant Superintendent Dwight Miller said the reason El Reno is in this situation is simple — there are fewer properties on the district’s tax rolls, compared to other school systems. More than one-third of the property within its boundaries is tax-exempt, including federal facilities such as the FCI prison and the USDA Fort Reno Grazinglands Laboratory and Cheyenne and Arapaho property. He said the tax rolls are decreasing slightly as the tribe purchases land for housing projects.

While El Reno School District does receive some federal funds to offset those from property that isn’t taxed, Miller said the amount isn’t anywhere near the ballpark amount the district would have collected if the properties were taxable. Alone, the 118 C&A homes in 2006 took $8 million off the tax rolls.