Schools seek building-reserve OK

Voters have a few more days to decide whether to approve levy requests for the Kalispell School District.

The district is requesting building reserve and technology levies in its elementary and high school districts.

The requested elementary levy is about $2.8 million. The high school levy is about $4.1 million. The amounts are unchanged from the last building reserve levies voters approved.

If voters approve the levy requests on Tuesday, their taxes will decrease slightly due to higher property taxable values.

A home with a taxable market value of $200,000 would pay about $64 a year if the elementary levy is approved, down from the $70 a year homeowners have paid for the last five years.

If voters approve the high school levy, a home with a $200,000 taxable value would pay about $43 a year, down from $47.

Polls close across the county at 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Kalispell Public Schools has relied on the levies for 27 years. The first building reserve levies passed in 1982, and they have been renewed every five years since 1985.

The current five-year building reserve cycle expires at the end of June 2010. If approved, the new levies will last through June 2015.

Building reserve money is separate from a district's general fund budget and is used to make improvements to school sites. There is little money in the general fund budget, most of which is allocated for staff salaries and benefits, to pay for basic upkeep on the buildings in the district.

Kalispell has 14 schools and support facilities to maintain.

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

Building reserve funds have paid for boilers, heating, ventilation and air conditioning at the schools. The money has allowed the district to replace roofs, lay carpet and tile and pave parking lots.

The funds also have paid for servers, desktop computers and laptops for students, teachers and computer labs. They have purchased digital whiteboards, digital copying equipment and, if the levies are renewed, may upgrade the district's phone system, which has been unchanged since 1998.

If voters approve the levies, the district will use building reserve money to replace aged and stained ceilings, remove asbestos materials, replace and repair roofs and address safety features at several school sites. The district would also replace 60-year-old boilers in three buildings.

A slide show with information about how Kalispell Public Schools has used money from the levies in the past and what it hopes to do with a renewed levy is available on the district's Web site, www.sd5.k12.mt.us.

The information also can be reached by the link, "Building reserve history," at the end of this article.