It helps to plan ahead, and with that in mind the South Washington County School Board heard from Finance Director Dan Pyan at the July 13 meeting two topics, a general finance update including Capital Projects Levy and a 10-year long-term facilities maintenance plan, to space out upkeep of the present district infrastructure and properties.

“We try to keep the tax rate as stable as possible,” Pyan said, indicating the district tried to keep its long-term maintenance expenses “at around $24 million per year.”

“There’s different categories in here, but basically we talk about plumbing, and heating, building envelope, roofing, and parking,” he said as a brief summary of the spreadsheet before the board.

Prior to approval of the long-term maintenance plan, Pyan presented on the Capital Projects Levy.

“Not all districts utilities a capital projects levy but many do,” Pyan told the board, sharing that these were limited by statute restricting the use of monies raised by them.

The current levy is restricted to technology costs, with Pyan sharing that the district was considering a November ballot question that would raise the present $2.8 million levy to $5 million, after the 2021 referendum failed by 71 votes out of more than 20,000 cast.

If posed and approved, the question would be to raise money for cybersecurity, instructional software, non-instructional software, and devices and repairs. It would have a tax impact of $3 per month ($36 per year) on a median home in the district, valued at $300,000.

On the flip side, referendum would free up money in the general fund to be used elsewhere.

“And we know if we have this dedicated revenue source that will not vary, it can only be used for technology, then the future projects can be made knowing there’s a revenue source there to cover them,” Pyan said. Not everyone was convinced during question time of the need for referendum.

“Is there anywhere else in the budget we can find $2.2 million instead of doing this?” Eric Tessmer asked of the gap between the current levy and district technology expenses.

“We’d have to utilize operating capital,” Pyan replied, the district receiving $3.8 million with $750,000 of this currently allocated to technology. During the budget reduction process the amount was reduced to $250,000.

“And then that would take away from—we’ve have to spend a lot of our operating capital,” Pyan said of funding technology costs through another source.

As to a possible November referendum to increase the levy, the question would require formal board approval of a ballot question and public notice beforehand.