$575,000 Shelley School District levy vote on March 8

SHELLEY — On March 8, Shelley School District is asking patrons to renew its $575,000 Supplemental Levy.

Since 2014, patrons of Shelley School District 60 have renewed its $575,000 Supplemental Levy every two years. On March 8, the school district is asking patrons to renew it again.

“That’s one thing that we’re actually kind of proud of is that we’re actually able to just renew this,” Shelley Superintendent Chad Williams said. “Everybody knows about rising costs and such. But, so far, the School Board and Business Manager and everybody else involved have been fiscally responsible and we feel like we can just renew it.”

Unlike plant facility and bond levies that require funds to go to specific areas of a school district’s budget, Williams explained that a supplemental levy goes into the district’s general fund to be used where needed.

“Ultimately, the supplemental levy makes up about four percent of our general fund,” Williams said.

While supplemental levy funds can touch every part of the school district’s budget, Shelley’s supplemental levy helps to pay the district’s classified employee’s hourly rate.

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Classified employees are all school district employees who are not teachers. This includes principals, paraprofessionals, food service, bus drivers, etc.

“The State is currently reimbursing us at a rate of $11.16 (per hour),” Williams said. 

He explained that most classified employees in the Shelley School District make more than $11.16 per hour. Because of this, much of the supplemental levy monies go towards making up the difference.

“If the supplemental levy does not pass,” Williams said, “we would have to go to our budget and figure out how to cut four percent. We figure about 85 percent of our budget is tied to salaries and positions. So it would definitely be very challenging to cut four percent.”

If renewed, the levy will cost property owners annually approximately $73 per $1,000 of the property’s value without a homeowners exemption, and $36.50 per $1,000 with a homeowners exemption.

This is actually a slight decrease of the tex levy rate from .00087 to .00073 due to growing market value.

The vote will be on March 8 at normal polling locations. Early voting began on Feb. 21 and will go through March 4. 

“I just want to invite everyone to be informed voters and invite their neighbors to vote. The more people that vote means that we’re representing what the community wants,” Williams said.

There is nothing up for a vote in the Firth School District.