Kila asks voters for $40,000

Kila voters will decide Tuesday whether to support a levy request from their school district.

Kila School is asking taxpayers to approve a $40,000 operational levy. The amount would make up half the deficit the district anticipates in its 2011-12 general fund budget.

School officials already have trimmed $40,000 from next year’s general fund budget and have outlined an additional $40,000 in cuts they will make if voters reject the levy request.

If voters approve it, annual property taxes on a home with a taxable market value of $100,000 will increase by $21.67. Taxes on a home with a $200,000 market value will increase by $43.34 a year.

Kila residents may find their properties’ market values online at maps.flathead.mt.gov.

Those who haven’t already returned absentee ballots may vote at the school from noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday.

The levy request marks the first time in six years the district has asked voters to support the school’s budget, Principal Renee Boisseau said. Kila last asked voters for an operational levy during the 2003-04 school year.

“It’s a long time not to fund the school,” she said. “We’re just in the spot” where we have to ask.

The shortfall in next year’s budget can be attributed to two primary factors, Boisseau said. One is declining enrollment.

“Many Kila families have moved due to the economy,” she said.

After three years of enrollments topping 150, student numbers have dropped to 137 this spring. As enrollment wanes, so does funding from the state.

The loss of one-time funding also is contributing to the budget deficit, Boisseau said. Those dollars, which have helped fill gaps in the budget for the last couple of years, won’t be available next year.

School board members and staffer already have outlined the cuts that will make up half the $80,000 shortfall Kila School expects next year.

Cuts include eliminating funding for one para-educator position, library periodicals, kitchen equipment and special education teacher books. Student CPR training has been eliminated as well.

Kila School always has trained its seventh- and eighth-graders in cardiopulmonary resuscitation as part of their health curriculum, Boisseau explained. Without money, which paid for training books and CPR mannequin rentals, the program will be eliminated.

The district also has outlined reductions in several areas, including slashing budgets for library books, computer software and supplies, and physical education equipment.

Kila could have requested nearly $82,000 from taxpayers to help make up the deficit. Instead, school board trustees and school officials chose to make some cuts rather than asking voters to make up the entire shortfall, Boisseau said.

While this is the first time in six years that Kila School has asked voters to support the budget, the district has made other requests of its taxpayers in recent years.

Voters rejected a $150,000 building reserve levy in 2010. That levy would not have impacted the general fund; the money would have been used to help build two new classrooms.

When the levy failed, the district used federal stimulus money and other district money to build one new classroom last summer.

The levy’s rejection marked the third time in four years that Kila taxpayers had denied a building-related request from the school. More than two-thirds of voters shot down a $147,500 building reserve levy in 2007, and a $2.1 million bond issue failed in 2009.

Both requests would have been used to expand the school building and would not have affected the general fund budget.

The general fund budget is used for the school’s operation. Salaries, supplies, textbooks and utilities are all paid for with general fund dollars.

If voters don’t approve the levy, the district will eliminate another para-educator position and a part-time custodial position. Funding for student supplies and textbooks, which already has been trimmed, will face further cuts. Money that might have been set aside to help with future budget needs will be used to balance the 2011-12 budget.

Boisseau said she hopes voters will approve the levy.

“It is for the kids, and we have to believe that what we do [at school] is good,” she said. “If [voters] don’t support education, what do we have to look forward to?”

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