CV school board will ask voters to support three-year levy
Board also considering buying new textbooks for high schools
After months of planning and preparation, the Central Valley board of directors passed a resolution to place the renewal of the school district’s maintenance and operations levy on the ballot with little discussion.
The measure, which the district calls a replacement school programs and operation levy, will appear on the Feb. 3. ballot.
“That looks like the date the other Valley districts are doing,” said Jan Hutton, executive director of finance. The Valley districts traditionally coordinate levies on the same ballot so the costs of the election can be split among them.
The district is asking for a three-year levy to replace the current one, which expires in 2009. Districts rely heavily on maintenance and operations levies and can ask voters to approve an amount equal to 24 percent of all money a district receives from state and federal sources.
The amount collected in 2010 is expected to be $19.6 million. It is a significant chunk of the district’s annual budget, which is $111.7 million this year.
It is estimated that the levy would collect $2.69 per $1,000 in assessed home value in 2010, $2.72 per thousand in 2011 and $2.75 per thousand in 2012. Those estimates include assumptions that property values will increase by 7 percent a year and that the levy equalization money provided by the state will decrease, Hutton said.
“We would hope there wouldn’t be reductions in levy equalization,” she said. “We feel we’re being conservative and realistic with the slowdown in the economy.”
If the state Legislature does not reduce the levy equalization money, which must be approved every two years, then the amount the district collects will go down. The amount also would drop if property values increase more than expected. In 2008, the district collected $2.62 per thousand in assessed home value.
Board member Cindy McMullan thanked district staff for its work in putting the levy plan together. “You answered questions we hadn’t thought of,” she said.
•In other business, the board discussed purchasing new accounting textbooks for the high schools. The books belonging to University High School were lost when the school moved into its new building.
Teachers have been shuttling one set of books between the two high schools, said Susan Christenson, director of career-technical education/technology services. “It’s been a struggle,” she said.
The issue will return before the board at the Nov. 10 meeting.