Trustees study building-reserve levy requests

Taxpayers in the Kalispell School District may be asked to approve building reserve levies in November.

The district is nearing the end of its five-year building reserve cycle. Building reserve money is separate from a district's general fund budget and is used to make improvements to school sites. Improvements include general maintenance and upkeep, and projects that will improve staff and student safety.

Technology purchases, such as computers and phone-system upgrades, also are financed out of the building reserve fund.

"It's been a real valuable funding mechanism for this district," district clerk Todd Watkins said at last week's regular school board meeting. "If you drive around and look at our schools, those schools are in the shape that they are because of this levy. The same goes for technology."

The district has been helped in recent years by $50.7 million in bonds voters approved in 2004. That money built Glacier High School, paid for an expansion and remodeling at Kalispell Middle School and helped complete several projects at Flathead High School.

The building reserve fund doesn't cover such hefty projects, but it does pay for necessary maintenance and upgrades. A list of the district's exact needs isn't yet available, but Watkins said future projects could include a new central kitchen, computer and phone system upgrades and moving classes back into the old Laser School on East Washington Street.

Kalispell Public Schools has run a building reserve levy every five years since 1985. In 2000, the levy amount sizably increased, Watkins said.

The district in 2000 was facing a new climate that hadn't existed in the 1980s, Watkins explained. In addition to much-needed building repairs and boiler and roof replacements, the district had new technology needs.

The public agreed the needs were there. They passed the levies again in 2005, although the high school levy did not pass as overwhelmingly as the elementary levy, which was approved by a 3-to-1 margin.

This year the district likely will ask voters for a replacement levy: Instead of asking for more money, which would raise taxes, school officials hope voters will continue to fund the levies at their current levels.

The current levies, which expire at the end of June 2010, are about $2.8 million for the elementary district and $4.1 million for the high school district.

Watkins outlined three scenarios for the next levies, which would last through June 2015. One concept asked for more money, based on taxable value growth. Under that scenario, the elementary levy would be almost $3.4 million and the high school levy would be just over $5 million.

Trustees did not like that scenario.

"If we find five years down the road that we have serious needs … if we find ourselves in that kind of a situation, then we can deal with that then," trustee Alice Ritzman said.

Another scenario proposed asking taxpayers for less money than the current levies and making up the difference with federal stimulus money. Taxpayers would be asked to approve a $2.8 million elementary levy and a $3.8 million high school levy.

The danger of that scenario is that stimulus funds are one-time-only, so at the end of five years, the district likely would have to ask voters to approve much larger levies.

A third scenario, the one Watkins recommended, proposed keeping the levy amounts the same. Voters would be asked to approve $2.8 million for the elementary district and $4.1 million for the high school.

While the amount the district receives would remain the same, new taxable values, which should be released at the end of August, likely would decrease the taxes each voter would pay. Watkins estimated a taxpayer with a home with a taxable value of $200,000 would pay almost $13 less a year in the elementary district and about $10 less in the high school district.

The school board will set the levy amounts and figure out the correct ballot language at its regular meeting in September. Before its Aug. 25 work session, trustees will tour the district's schools to see the needs firsthand.

Trustee John Osweiler said he would not support asking taxpayers for more money but would support a replacement levy. Other trustees agreed.

If voters reject that amount, the district probably will try again in the spring and ask for a smaller amount. The levies must be renewed before July 1.

The district likely will hold its building reserve levy election in conjunction with the city election Nov. 3. This would allow the school to save money by sharing expenses with the city of Kalispell.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com