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Citizens panel advises Kelso School District seek two four-year levies
Saturday, November 7, 2009 7:28 PM PST
By Leila Summers
Printable version
E-mail this articleKelso School District voters may be asked to approve levy increases ranging from 14 percent to 20 percent next spring.
A district citizens committee has recommended the board ask voters to approve two, four-year levies: a replacement traditional programs and operations levy that would raise about $7 million a year, and a “technology” levy that would raise $330,000 annually.
The measures, which the school board might combine or ask voters to approve separately, would replace the current levy, which is raising $6.14 million this year.
The school board will decide at its meeting Nov. 16 how it wants to submit the proposal to voters. The election would be Feb. 9.
The standard programs and operations levy would cost property owners $3.81 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, and the technology levy would add $0.18 per $1,000.
Combined, the two levies would cost the owner of a $150,000 home $598.50 annually through 2014. That’s about $100 more per year than property owners are paying under the existing levy rate, $3.30 per $1,000.
A P&O levy — called a M&O or maintenance and operations levy by most other school districts — pays for teachers, programs, building maintenance and educational costs not covered by state funding. They typically provide about 20 percent of school district revenues.
Selling a levy increase may be a challenge in a struggling local economy. However, a key reason the Citizens for Kelso Schools committee is recommending a levy increase is that officials expect the Legislature to sharply cut “levy equalization” funding — a program that helps districts with low property values compete with more well-to-do areas.
Kelso is getting $2.6 million in levy equalization dollars this year. District officials expect the Legislature to cut that by $313,000 next year — the amount it tried to cut last year only to have it restored by a legal glitch.
“My guess is that they will at least cut that $313,000, and there’s nothing to prevent them from going deeper,” Jim Biwer, executive director of business and operations, said Friday.
Another reason for the P&O levy increase, he added, is that the district’s transportation, textbook and maintenance costs keep rising. In particular, some 25-year-old heating and ventilation units need replacing, Biwer said.
The technology levy would help the district start replacing computers purchased under a voter-approved 2002 bond, Biwer said.
In addition, Biwer said, the district needs more “smart boards,” which are interactive whiteboards that are becoming a essential part of modern classrooms.
Scott Westlund, the district’s education program and assessment coordinator, said Kelso has about 3,000 computers. Replacing them on a six-year cycle would cost $600,000 annually. So a $300,000 technology levy “is not going to get half of where the committee felt we needed to be to stay up to date with technology,” Westlund said.
It’s essential the district updates its equipment because computer technology has become so integral to classroom learning, said Kelso Schools Superintendent Glenys Hill.
The citizens committee “said you absolutely have to do something about technology in district,” Hill said Thursday.
Board President Patty Wood said she’s undecided about whether to combine the levies into one or submit them separately.
Requesting two levies would minimize the risk of failing the vital P&O levy, she said, but voters might misconstrue the district’s intent if it separates the levy, thinking the district doesn’t “value (technology) enough, so you’re running it separately.”
One thing is for certain, Wood said: The district can’t afford to lose its P&O levy. Those dollars have a direct link to $2.6 million in state funding, called levy equalization dollars, given to districts with high levy rates.
Losing the P&O levy means the district would also lose that state funding, which could equal $9 million for the district, Wood said.
“You can’t even conceive of what you’d be doing if you lost $9 million,” she said.
Longview 88 wrote on Nov 7, 2009 8:19 AM:
herenkelso wrote on Nov 7, 2009 1:53 PM:
kelsofanz26 wrote on Nov 7, 2009 3:40 PM:
Viewpoint wrote on Nov 7, 2009 6:57 PM:
skibum wrote on Nov 7, 2009 10:27 PM:
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