Levy Rate Lower Than Reported

Recently the Dayton School Board took action to place a supplemental maintenance and operations levy on the February ballot.

When the board approved this measure, I estimated the cost per thousand to be 65 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. Due to some miscalculations on my part, the cost is actually estimated to be 45 cents per $1,000.

The error occurred when I used the wrong tax table for calculations. When the ballot information was passed on to the county, the error was found and corrected by Chris Miller, Columbia County Assessor.

The supplemental levy is being proposed by the school district in an effort to maintain current programs and staffing in the wake of state budget cuts. While the levy funds will not be collected until April and October of 2012, the additional funding raised by the levy should help offset potential cuts by the legislature during the next legislative session scheduled to begin in January.

The district has already been informed by the state that it will lose up to $162,000 in revenue during the current academic and fiscal year. That funding includes $45,000 allocated to districts for the purpose of keeping class sizes near 22 students in grades K-4.

Officials have also predicted that the K-4 enhancement will also be eliminated from the budget during the next two school years. Without this funding the district is likely to face some difficult choices if it wishes to keep class sizes down.

Even with the additional funding, the district currently has a 1st grade class of 29 students and a 3rd grade class with 28 students. Basic education apportionment provides a teacher for about every 24 students. In order to receive sufficient funding for a second teacher at each grade level a district needs 48 students.

The largest portion of this round of legislative cuts was revenue brought about by the education jobs bill, passed by the federal government. Dayton received $113,000 in additional revenue last month but will now have to give that money back to the state.

We had been hoped that these funds would have provided the necessary revenue to offset a lower-than-budgeted enrollment for the current year and higher-thanexpected expenditures in special education.

The district has made some small reductions in expenses to offset the loss, but the bulk of the additional expenses will be covered by reserves that already are smaller than the district's goal of 5 percent or $250,000.

While the levy will be put before the voters long before the legislature is likely to complete work on the budget for the next biennium, school districts across the state are preparing for significant cuts in state funding.

I have already explained to the public that the board hopes an increase in local funding will be enough to prevent cuts in existing programs. In the event the cuts

are not as severe as expected, the district will look to restore some of the programs that were eliminated during the past five years.

Those programs include returning the schools' K-12 counseling program, more complete library services, more support staff, updated curriculum and supplies, transportation and facilities maintenance.

I encourage voters with questions about the upcoming levy to contact me at 509-382-2543 or dougj@ daytonsd.org. They may also attend the school board's monthly meetings scheduled for the first and third Wednesdays of each month at 6:30 p.m. in the board room.