Voters get two school levies
Voters in School District 6 will see two levy proposals this year. The school board on April 29 unanimously proposed a 3.01 mill elementary levy and a 2.8 mill high school levy.
If approved by voters, the elementary levy will raise $89,565 and increase taxes on a house with a market value of $200,000 by $8.33. The high school levy would raise $96,434 and increase taxes on a similar house by $7.75.
The combined impact on a house with a market value of $200,000 would be $16.08. Both levies would be permanent if the school district levies the amount at least once in the next five years.
Mail-in ballots will be sent out on May 15. Polling stations will be open Tuesday, June 4, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at West Glacier School and from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Canyon Elementary School in Hungry Horse and Glacier Gateway Elementary School in Columbia Falls.
According to school superintendent Michael Nicosia, declining enrollment continues to hamper local school budgets, but the elementary school enrollment is not as bad as at the high school. The fiscal year 2014 elementary budget, based on enrollment and without the proposed levy, will be $9.6 million — that’s about 3.1 percent lower than the actual budget for 2011.
Nicosia said the elementary budget already allows for $50,238 in personnel cuts, but additional cost projections for personnel total $214,205. Even with the levy approved by voters, the school board will be looking at $150,990 in total cuts needed, Nicosia said.
“That’s not as bad as in the past,” he said.
The high school budget is hampered by worse enrollment numbers. The fiscal year 2014 high school budget, based on enrollment and without the proposed levy, will be $5 million, about 7.8 percent lower than the actual budget for 2011.
The 2014 budget already allows for $58,693 in personnel cuts, but additional cost projections for personnel total $76,619. The high school levy also includes $30,000 for math improvement opportunities, Nicosia said — the only new program in either the elementary or high school budgets.
“Our goal is to keep what we have now,” he said. “No programs are eliminated, and the high school math funding is the only new budgeted program. We’ll be increasing AP classes for high school, but that won’t cost more money.”
Nicosia said the school funding bill approved in Helena will provide public schools with a 0.89 percent inflation increase for one component of the state school-funding formula.
But with enrollment down by 2.63 percent in grades K-8, according to the ANB (average number belonging) budget formula, and down by 4.07 percent in the high school district, state funding to School District 6 decreased by $142,225 in the elementary district and by $147,446 in the high school district.
In addition, if property owners had been provided tax relief, that would make it easier for schools to request a levy, Nicosia said, but the legislature didn’t pass any property tax relief bills this year.
Senate Bill 175, the school funding bill sponsored by Sen. Llew Jones, R-Conrad, was approved in the House on April 17 by 58-41, with both Reps. Jerry O’Neil, R-Columbia Falls, and Keith Regier, R-Kalispell, opposed.
The Senate approved the bill as amended by the House on April 19 by 46-4, with Sen. Dee Brown, R-Coram, opposed and Sen. Bruce Tutvedt, R-Kalispell, in favor. Both Regier and Brown are retired school teachers.
School District 6 voters approved two mill levies last year — 3.19 mills for the elementary district and 2.5 mills for the high school district. The combined impact on property taxes at the time for a home valued at $200,000 was $16.76. Nicosia noted at the time that money from the permanent levies would be earmarked for textbooks, supplies, technology, equipment and other non-personnel costs if needed.
Other recent School District 6 levy elections included: May 6, 2008 — elementary levy, $69,607, passed, high school levy, $142,000, failed; May 8, 2007 — elementary levy, $241,395, passed; and May 2, 2006 — elementary levy, $297,444, passed, high school levy, $89,362, passed.