Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
District hopes to pass two standard, one bus levy
ODESSA—The school district here prefers to run its operational and capital improvement levies on an annual basis instead of on a two-or-three year basis. This year, there’s a third levy to raise funds for a new school bus facing district voters in a special election Tuesday, Feb. 14.
“Typically, here they’ve done a yearly levy,” superintendent John Bruce said. “If it’s on a two-year or three-year basis…that doesn’t account for inflation.”
This year the first ask to voters is to pass an educational programs and operational levy that would collect $600,000 in 2024 and charge taxpayers approximately $1.86 per $100,000 property value.
A taxpayer with property valued at $300,000 would pay $558 for this levy that would finance educational programs and operational expense for the district.
“That’s not the highest levy the district has ever asked for,” Bruce said.
The second ask is for voters to pass a capital levy for school improvements that would collect $125,000 in 2024 and charge taxpayers approximately 37 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
A taxpayer with property valued at $300,000 would pay $111 for this levy that would finance school improvement projects.
“We’ve been having some issues at the elementary school with plumbing and pipes,” Bruce said. “We also have some sidewalks to fix. We’re going to have a meeting this month to have a better idea of where we’re going with that.”
The final levy the district hopes to pass is a levy to purchase a new school bus. The levy would collect $150,000 in 2024 and charge taxpayers approximately 47 cents per $1,000 assessed property value.
A taxpayer with property valued at $300,000 would pay $141 toward this levy to purchase a new school bus.
“We’ve had three buses down at the bus barn that are close to non-operational but could fetch some deprecation money,” Bruce said. “But when we had a bus accident in late October, that bus was listed as total.”
Bruce said the district thinks getting funding for a bus now will be less expensive than buses will cost in the future once deprecation monies come in.
“We’re hoping to do this sooner and save people some money,” he said.
Levies have historically rendered strong support in the local district, which includes voters in Odessa town limits, rural Odessa, Enos, Irby, Lamona and Layton.
“We’re going to have to tighten our belts if the levies don’t pass,” Bruce said. “We hope we still have good support since we’re trying to give our students the best opportunities to succeed here.”
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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