Schools may seek local option levy

Sisters schools may seek a local tax levy to rescue the cash-strapped district. The 10-member Sisters School Budget Committee, at its final meeting May 22, recommended the school board place a local option levy on the November ballot.

Under the proposal, the board would seek a maximum annual levy of $500,000, for up to five years. According to School Superintendent Steve Swisher, that represents about $100,000 less than the maximum allowed under current law.

Swisher estimated the taxpayer investment at 80 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value to generate the $500,000. That amount breaks down into an additional $455 in spending for each of the district's 1,100 students.

Some committee members expressed concern at or pinning the quality of education to the vagaries of the ballot box.

"But if we don't go for this solution, the legislature could say we didn't even try," committee chair Erik Hoaglund said.

School board and budget committee member Heather Wester thinks that Sisters is on its own in the effort to improve school funding.

"Now that the Portland (schools') levy passed, Salem won't care about the rest of the state," she said.

School board chair Bill Reed agreed, concluding the district has little choice.

"We've spent two (legislative) sessions hoping and waiting for a productive outcome -- and the local option levy is what they've come up with," Reed said.

The proposal specifies that a minimum of 50 percent of the new revenue be dedicated to instructor positions. The remaining half would be split between educational materials, maintenance, and, possibly, an emergency fund.

The committee noted the district's deteriorating buildings, inadequate maintenance staff, eroding sports programs, expanding class sizes, and disappearing teaching positions.

Member Bob Shaw underscored the pressures faced by the committee.

"If we are forced to cut more into sports, some parents tonight have said they'll leave the district. But I've heard others say the same if we cut into education," he said. "That's a tough tightrope we walk.

"I've got two daughters in high school here," Shaw said. "It'll be hard on my family if teachers leave."

Recent ballot results clearly influenced the push to seek the local levy in the November general election.

Statewide, the committee noted, over 50 percent of May 14 levies passed. Of those defeated, the overwhelming number won majorities of support but failed because they failed to get 50 percent voter turnout. The members noted that in November, the so-called double-50, under which 50 percent of all current voters must participate and 50 percent of them must approve a measure, will not apply.

The budget committee, composed of the five school board directors and five appointed members, will next meet on June 5