Levy…coming up early next year for a vote…

At next week’s  San Juan Island School District School Board Meeting on Wednesday, one of the agenda items is reviewing the needs that will be addressed by next year’s Capital & Tech Levy….here’s the details, from superintendent Rick Thompson:

On the agenda for the regular school board meeting, you will see an item related to a Proposed Capital and Technology Levy the board is taking under consideration for a February 14, 2012 ballot measure.  In these difficult economic times, we wanted to give the public a chance to preview the list of needs, and to provide comment at the regularly scheduled October board meeting if so desired.  The proposed list of projects are identified in the attachment for your review.

Here are some basis facts in a nutshell:

• The district bonds are paid off; there is not outstanding balance in the debt service fund
• This measure will replace the 2008 capital and technology levy approved by the voters
• The amount increases the levy to meet the district’s needs and to prevent increased costs in the future
• A committee made up of volunteers met this fall to review the list, to prioritize the projects, and to walk through the sites to review the facilities

The amount at the bottom is the total amount asked to be collected over four years; you can see the totals for facilities, and technology also.

The annual collection is proposed to go from $500,000 per year to $ 940,750 per year.  While this amount is significant, it is recommended due to the age of the facilities and the systems which need to be repaired, modernized, or maintained in significant ways.

One of the goals coming from this proposal is to keep as many General Fund dollars in the classroom (we don’t want to use General Fund dollars) to pay for facility or technology projects in light of reduced state funding.

In order to inform the committee’s work, several documents were provided, including a study and survey of all district facilities, and several reports on the condition of FHES.  The elementary site will be a focus of this proposal.

The list reflects district needs—not wants.  The proposal is to invest in school facilities now, in order to avoid larger investments in the future.

The district does not run a levy for technology; technology needs also account for a large portion of this request.  You can see the detailed list of the technology needed in the attachment.

The community fields located on Carter Avenue are not identified for development in this proposal because the property is currently under lease.

Members of the public are welcome to review the documentation leading to this recommendation by contacting us at the district office 378-4133.

Please let me know if you would like additional information.

Rick

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