POPLARVILLE — School superintendent Carl Merritt told the Poplarville school board here on Monday night that the current funding situation is “unprecedented,” as school boards try to set funding amounts based on falling property values that have skewed tax revenue projections downward.

The school board on Monday night voted unanimously to request from the county taxing authority, the board of supervisors, the same amount of money it “received” from the county last fiscal year. The school board received $4.4 million last fiscal year to help support the school board’s budget, which was actually less than the board had requested. The board had requested $4.5 million last year.

The board’s decision was made after about a 30-minute discussion on the issue by the five-member board.

The school board won’t know what the millage rate is until the board of supervisors sets the rate. Figures could be adjusted. The school board meets again on Sept. 10, and the county’s deadline to set millage is Sept. 15.

Officials expect millage to go up, although they don’t know how much. The resolution adopted here Monday night will be forwarded to supervisors.

In requesting the same amount as last year, the board is following a procedure under state law that allows it to do that. The discussion brought out that if millage rates remain the same, the board will lose approximately $400,000 in projected revenue. That’s because property values have fallen a estimated nine percent overall in the district and a mill generates less revenue.

Merritt told the board the situation was “unprecedented.”

Said Merritt to the board: “We are in unprecedented times. We are very frugal and efficient with our monies, but you cannot predict a situation like this. It’s something we have no control over.”

Once supervisors get the money figure that the school board sets, supervisors will apply a millage rate to raise that amount of funding. While the school board determines a dollar amount it needs, supervisors set the millage and, by state law, have to set it to generate the dollar amount requested by the school board.

The county’s other two school boards — Pearl River County school board at Carriere and Picayune school board — are going through similar circumstances.

Financial director Samantha Sandifer, who briefed the board on its alternatives, said she had received calls from school board officials around the state wanting to know how the Poplarville system was handling the matter. “It’s affecting every school district,” she told the board.

In another matter, the board voted to take bids on constructing a new field house for the high school boys baseball team, saying the current structure poses a health and safety hazard.

The board will ask for bids, after two coaches appeared before the board asking for the new field house, which contains the team’s locker rooms and showering facilities.

 The board said it wanted a facility that would meet the team’s needs and eliminate the health and safety hazards, but nothing extravagant. Head baseball coach J.J. Fortune and assistant coach Ryan Jackson appeared before the board to brief board members on the situation.

The current field house is in such bad condition that a recommendation was made that it be demolished when the new facility is constructed. The current facility is under the bleachers at the baseball field, but officials plan to relocate the new facility because of drainage problems.

In another matter, the board recognized high school Principal Ilene Davis and her staff on the high school being named by “U.S. News and World Reports” as a Bronze award winner in national competition. The award is given to schools that demonstrate commendable performance on state assessments, based on student achievements.

The board also congratulated Merritt on being named to the  board of the Mississippi Association of School Superintendents.

In other business, the board:

— Approved the following agreements: Alternative school contract with the Pearl River County school district; special events; Hattiesburg clinic assessment services; and the So. Mississippi Business Machines agreement.

— Approved crisis management plans for the district, high school, middle, lower and upper elementary schools.

— Approved contracts for the parents involvement program, the asbestos continuing services and Tyco integrated security contracts.

— Approved personnel resignations and recommendations.

— Approved the following 16th section land transactions: A negotiated proposal for hunting and fishing leases on 16-2-17; a bid for sale of timber on 16-3-17; and the Miss. Forestry Commission’s Annual Report.

— Tabled bids on three used school buses.

— Approved the consent agenda, which included release students to other districts, accepting out-of-district students, out-of-state travel, a donation, disposal of equipment, a bus turnaround request and the claim docket, payroll, financial statement, activity fund receipts and minutes of the July 16 regular and Aug. 2 special board meetings.

— Adjourned to Sept. 10.