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By Dian Ver Valen
The Times 

Dayton Schools Plan April Levy Vote

$800,000 capital levy would provide funds for upgrades needed for ‘health and safety’

 


DAYTON – Although the board didn’t take official action last week, the Dayton School District has announced that it intends to place an $800,000 capital-improvement levy on the April 10 ballot.

“The board hasn’t taken action yet because the resolution and ballot measure are still being written,” said Superintendent Doug Johnson. “But unofficially they said, ‘Yeah, this is a good thing to do.’”

The board will vote on the official language and timing of the ballot measure at its regular Feb. 4 meeting. The levy would be on a two-year collection cycle, Johnson said. The estimated cost to taxpayers would be 66 cents per thousand dollar valuation each year, in 2016 and in 2017.

“The actual cost should be less than that because the new windmills will come online, but in working with the assessor we’ve learned that the way the turbines are assessed is really done at the state level and handed down to the counties,” Johnson said. “So she couldn’t give me an estimate.”

The board plans to use the levy money, if approved by voters, to address a number of crucial projects identified in a study and survey completed in 2014. Among these are entry and exit doors, roof projects, updating the phone and other communication systems, irrigation system for watering district grounds and athletic facilities, repairs to the elementary asphalt playground and roof, and campus-wide sidewalk repairs.

“The costs are estimates only,” Johnson said. “And we did build in a 10 percent contingency. If there is money left over after the projects planned, we’ve been discussing what to do with the extra such as continuing to add to our security camera system with the purchase of more cameras, for example.”

Johnson said that in looking at a levy proposal much smaller than the bond that failed last year – which asked for $25 million for major renovations and changes to district facilities – this modest proposal tries to address health and safety issues. The roof is included because maintenance of the roof helps keep the rest of the building from being damaged, he said.

“We also stayed away from things like re-carpeting the high school, for example, because if we are able to go ahead with the reconfiguration we had in mind – at some point – we would have thrown that money away with the new carpet,” he said.

Unlike a bond levy, with which the district would borrow money by issuing bonds and then pay them off with tax revenues, this capital-improvement levy would bring in tax revenues over two years to pay the bills as the funds came in.

 

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