Plains School District seeks approval for levy

An informational public meeting was held Thursday evening in the Plains school library concerning the school district's proposed $100,000 levy request.

Ballots were sent out last week with election day being May 7.

Superintendent Dr. Kathleen Walsh was on hand to discuss the impact of the proposed levy on local residents. 

“I’m using this (meeting) as an opportunity to engage the community in the process,” Walsh told attendees. 

The school district is losing two teachers to retirement and three paraprofessionals are retiring. Two positions need to be filled for next year: one in high school and one in elementary school. 

"We have good people working here and we need to keep them,” Walsh said.

The current school student enrollment is 420.

Walsh explained that the funding request is "a learning levy."

"We understand the financial difficulties many members of our community are facing during these challenging times. And as you will hear our schools are also experiencing financial concerns, which has an impact on the quality and level of instruction. Our courses, of course, will always continue to educate our young people. We are committed to that. The teachers, the staff are committed to educating our young people. The passing of the levy will allow us to add to the rigger of our course work, promote enrichment in music and art and work on recruiting and maintaining additional highly qualified teachers. What we want to do with this money is to help strengthen the core of our instruction. Our academic programs, we want to keep giving the students in Plains all the opportunities that they have now and have them grow even greater. They deserve that. We will always give our students a quality education so they can move on. The levy will assist us in doing this. The levy decision is yours (the public).”

The budget for the school year was $3.7 million. Next year’s budget was increased by only $7,000, even though expenses have increased significantly. 

School business manager Kelly Pfister discussed how residents school taxes are assessed. She explained in detail the differences between market value versus taxable value. 

Market value is the value at which a property would change hands between a buyer and seller. Taxable value is the market value multiplied by the classification tax rate which is set currently at 1.35% based on state code.

The current Sanders County median residential home value is $229,030. The tax amount per year, on a median residential valued property in Sanders County, would be $31.

Last year’s levy request was turned down by voters by only 209 votes. The last levy passed was for a technology levy in 2007. The last general fund levy passed was in 2003. 

    Plains School District business manager Kelly Pfister talks about the district's budget. (Tracy Scott/Valley Press)