The Durango School District 9-R Board voted unanimously Tuesday to put a mill levy override question on the November ballot to raise money for staff, small class sizes and innovative programs and technology.
The board made a big step today in wanting to invest in the future, board member Julie Levy said. We think people want to say that our kids are a priority in our community.
The levy, which would bring in $3.2 million annually, would cost about $60 a year, or $5 a month, for a house assessed at $400,000. The mill levy collection would begin with property tax bills in early 2011.
Thats the first big step, Superintendent Keith Owen said about the approval. Now the hard work begins.
A campaign committee already has been organized to help pass the measure, with a war chest partially funded by Marc Katz, a co-founder of Mercury Payment Systems. Erica Max will serve as chairwoman of the committee.
But we want to get $10 contributions from at least 1,500 people so we can show how much people support this, Levy said to her fellow board members. Get your checkbooks out.
The board also approved the specific language of the ballot measure and agreed to pay La Plata County a pro-rated amount of the cost of the election.
School District 9-R, which has a General Fund budget just under $37 million, had to cut $2.5 million out of its budget for the 2010-2011 school year after a budget shortfall at the state level led to large cuts in the amount it could give the district.
Is this backfill to replace some of what we had to cut? Owen said. Its related. Small class sizes, the ability to attract and pay competitive wages to faculty and our ability to invest in technology were all impacted by the budget cuts.
The issue of charter school funding and 9-Rs relationships with Animas High School and the proposed Mountain Middle School caused some discussion. Nancy Heleno, president of the board of directors of Mountain Middle School, and Thomas Morrissey, president of the board of Animas High, which is going into its second year and adding 10th-grade classes to its offerings, both asked the board to consider some way of channeling some of the levy monies to their schools.
Since charter schools cannot initiate a mill levy override, nor have they ever been included on a district mill levy override, Heleno said, a school the size of Mountain Middle School has historically spent about $500 of per-pupil revenue on facilities every year. The funds the district uses for teacher salaries and desks, MMS must spend for a place to call home.
While Owen said he and 9-R staff are working on building cooperative relationships with the charter schools, several attorneys and staff members questioned the legalities of district funds going to a nondistrict charter school. Both AHS and MMS are working through the Colorado State Institute of Charter Schools, which is its own separate district.
A school district has oversight over district-charged charter schools, Owen said. We dont have jurisdiction or authority over Animas High, and Mountain Middle School doesnt even exist yet.
The school board decided to work on building stronger relationships with the two schools but did not discuss any monetary support. Owen said he is willing to talk about the two schools being chartered through 9-R if AHS or MMS decided to investigate that possibility.
The board also approved a resolution against proposed Amendments 60 and 61 and Proposition 101, which will be on the November ballot. All of them dramatically cut property taxes dedicated to education and other civic causes and require the state to take money from the General Fund to replace the tax cuts.
It sounds great in theory to cut property taxes, board member Joe Colgan said. But I dont see how it would work in practice, since the state doesnt have those backfill dollars that would be required.
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