Dayton Decides On Levy Amount

DAYTON - The Dayton School District will be asking voters in February to approve two ballot measures that will maintain operations in the district, keep technology up-todate and pay for a safer set of high school bleachers.

The school board voted unanimously last Wednesday night to put two issues on the ballot for the Feb. 14, 2012, special election, said Superintendent Doug Johnson.

One measure is a maintenance and operations levy that will replace the current levy voters are paying that is set to expire. The new maintenance and operations levy, if approved, would be run over four years and collect $1.3 million for the district each year. The proposed levy would cost $2.33 per $1,000 assessed property value the first year, and drop to about $2.26 per $1,000 near the levy's end.

"The amount is almost 100 percent of what we can legally ask for," Johnson said. "It's required if we're going to continue operating in the way we have been."

Johnson said he and the board members are still very concerned about what proposed cuts the legislators will end up making in the special session and that this money, even if approved by the voters, still may not be enough with proposed cuts on the table at the state level.

The $2.33 is actually a couple of pennies less than the current levy rate voters have been paying, he said.

Wednesday night, there was also more discussion on a technology and capital improvements levy. This would be a two-part measure that would fund a new set of safetycompliant bleachers at the high school and would continue the current technology levy to keep computers and classroom technology current, Johnson said.

"The bleachers are a longoverdue maintenance item," said Steve Martin, the chairman of the school board.

The capital projects part of the levy that will install the bleachers is about $25,000 less than how much the district anticipated asking for earlier this school year. The district is asking for $180,000 in a one-year collection that would cost residents 32 cents per $1,000 assessed value. The district would collect the money in 2013.

The current bleachers would be replaced with a closedstyle bleacher that wouldn't allow children or items to fall through, Martin said.

Johnson said if the voters approve this levy, the district would take the project out to bid. If the district had money left over after the bleachers were installed, he said the district could look at other small improvements. If approved, the bleachers could be installed in 2014. Or the district also has the option of taking out a loan to replace the bleacher sooner, such as in the summer of 2012, but that would cost the district extra in loan fees and interest.

The bleachers are only a part of a long list of capital improvements that need to be done in the district. Other needs include new asphalt on the elementary school program and a new sprinkler system for the athletic fields. Martin said the district is asking the community for bleachers instead of other projects because safety is a priority.

The second part of the levy would collect $75,000 over each year for four years for technology. This part of the levy would cost taxpayers 14 cents per $1,000 assessed value each year.

If the voters approve the levy, the first year will cost taxpayers 46 cents per $1,000 for both the bleachers and technology. The last three years of the levy will cost taxpayers 14 cents per $1,000 for technology only. And if in February the Dayton community decides not to approve these measures, Johnson said the board could re-evaluate the amounts requested and put another issue on the ballot in May 2012.

"Hopefully we won't have to worry about it," Johnson said. "It's difficult times, but we have a responsibility to the community to keep up facilities and maintain academic programs."