Woodland School Board is asking voters to approve a 4 percent levy increase this February. The two-year proposal will replace a four-year maintenance and operations levy that expires next year.

The expiring M&O levy — which raises $2.83 million a year — helps pay for everything from teacher salaries to text books, supplies, building maintenance, transportation, athletics activities, Woodland Superintendent Michael Green said Wednesday.

“The modest increase is designed to keep up with the increase in cost of doing business,” Green said. “In gathering (community) data, we asked the question would you rather see program cuts if we kept the levy level, and people basically said ‘no.’ People said they don’t want to see programs lost.”

If approved, the levy would collect about $2.95 million in 2011 and $3.1 million in 2012. The 2011 levy rate would be $2.14 per $1,000 of assessed property value, down a penny from $2.13 per $1,000 in 2010. The new levy would cost the owner of a $150,000 home about $321 in 2011 — a $1.50 increase over next year’s levy payment.

Rates are proposed to increase to $2.17 per $1,000 in 2012, costing the owner of a $150,000 home $325.50.

The M&O levy makes up about 13 percent of Woodland’s general fund budget. The additional money will help the school district limit future budget cuts if state school support declines again next year, Green said.

“We don’t know what the state budget is going to do for us,” he said.

Ballots in the vote-by-mail will be due Feb. 9, but they will not arrive in voters’ mailboxes until late January.