School board members recently voted to approve a preliminary levy of $12,495,785 million for school district taxes due in 2017. This would make for a 4.74 percent increase over last year, which Superintendent Dr. Ann-Marie Foucault said is due to rising enrollment in the school district. Last year’s levy totaled $11,929,985.
The general fund is seeing the largest increase over last year, at 12.4 percent or just under $500,000.
Foucault explained that most of the general fund uses Adjusted Pupil Units (APU) to determine funding levels. Students in grades K-6 are weighted at 1.0, while grades 7-12 are weighted at 1.2. She said the district’s APU was 6574.8 in fiscal year 2016, but jumped to 6,887.8 in fiscal year 2017.
“When you multiply the difference times the formula it results in a larger amount,” she said.
Another part of the general fund, the long-term facility maintenance formula, went up from $193 per APU last year to $292 per APU this year.
Foucault added that school board members can choose to lower the levy at the December 5th Truth in Taxation meeting, but she recommended setting the preliminary levy at the maximum level, as they have done in the past, since they cannot raise the levy total if needed once they pass the preliminary levy.
The school board unanimously approved setting the preliminary levy at the maximum. The Dec. 5 truth in taxation meeting takes place at 7 p.m. in the Middle School West boardroom.