The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON – The Dayton School Board will likely decide at their regular meeting on Wednesday whether to put its proposed capital levy before voters in April or wait until the November general election.

The board plans to have an unrelated executive session at 6:30 p.m., its usual start time, and expects to begin the regular board meeting at 7:30 p.m. (Check the district website for any changes or additional information at http://www.daytonsd.org.)

After voters defeated a $25 million school bond measure in November, the school board came up with a much smaller proposal that will request $800,000 in a capital levy to pay for only the most critical facilities projects, according to Superintendent Doug Johnson. They include roofing, sidewalks, an asphalt playground, phone system, irrigation, and upgrading the gym lobby.

The board will also consider later this month whether to collect funds from taxpayers over a one, two or three-year period; discussion at the board meeting last week indicated most members were leaning toward a two-year period. The estimated tax rate would be 65 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value for those two years.

“The rate is likely to go down based on the new windmill project being added to the district’s assessed value,” Johnson said, “however it is still too early to tell what that amount might be according to the county assessor.”