Schools to consider local option retry

The Sisters School Board will decide Wednesday night whether to ask voters again to approve a renewal of the local option tax levy.

The board will vote on a resolution to put the four-year levy of 75 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation on the March ballot. The same measure failed by 26 votes in November.

The levy brings in approximately $1 million and makes up nearly 10 percent of the school district's budget. While no cuts are coming this year due to the failure of the levy, cuts will be inevitable if the levy fails to pass on a subsequent try.

School board chair Christine Jones said she cannot "presume to speak for my fellow board members, but I hope it (the resolution) passes."

Several reasons for the failure of the levy in November have been bandied about, including dissatisfaction over a $1.2 million payback to the Oregon Department of Education for a disallowed home school program, general economic anxiety and a lack of understanding of the levy.

Jones told The Nugget that several people told her that they did not realize, despite heavy publicity on the measure, that the levy would be a renewal of an expiring levy, not a new tax.

The school board meets at 7 p.m. Wednesday, January 7, at the Sisters School District Administration Building, 525 E. Cascade Ave.