Kalispell Public Schools is proud of its buildings.

While some reflect the weathering and wear they've endured over the years, none are falling down or in utter disrepair. They are safe places for teachers to teach and students to learn.

The reason for that, according to District Clerk Todd Watkins, is the district's building reserve and technology levies.

The current levies - one each for Kalispell's elementary and high school districts - expire in June 2010. Voters will decide the issue at the Nov. 3 election. Absentee ballots were mailed Wednesday.

Unlike the district's general fund budget, which is allotted by the state and based largely on a district's enrollment, the building reserve levies are used entirely for facilities.

The funds aren't large enough to build new schools, but they might build or remodel classrooms, improve schools' technological capacities or make buildings safer for students.

"In my 15 years [with the district], I think I'm most proud of that account and the board's oversight of it," Watkins said. "You can't use it on wages and benefits.

"It has to be technology. It has to be hardware. It has to be improvements on facilities."

Kalispell Public Schools has relied on the levies for 27 years. The first building reserve levies passed in 1982, and they have been renewed every five years since 1985.

If approved, the new levies will last through June 2015.

The district is requesting a $2.8 million elementary levy and a $4.1 million high-school levy.

The amounts are unchanged from the last five-year cycle, but if taxpayers approve the levy requests, their property taxes actually will decrease.

A home with a taxable market value of $200,000 would pay about $64 a year if the elementary levy is approved, down from $70 a year the homeowner has been paying. A home with a taxable market value of $200,000 would pay about $43 a year if the high-school levy passes, down from $47.

"We try to be as conservative as we can when we present [levies] to the voters," school board trustee Don Murray said. "We did try to keep it to the bare minimum, given the economic climate."

The levies are important to the district, he said.

"It's a source of funds above and beyond the general fund monies to take care of buildings and technology. It's crucial to what we do," Murray said.

Building reserve funds pay for boilers and the schools' heating, ventilation and air conditioning, Watkins said. They have allowed the district to replace roofs, lay carpet and tile and pave parking lots. With a matching donation from the community, $600,000 of building reserve money improved Legends Stadium.

The fund has also paid for servers, desktop computers and laptops for teachers, students and computer labs, Watkins added. It has bought digital whiteboards, digital copying equipment and, if it is renewed, may pay to upgrade the district's phone system, which has been unchanged since 1998.

Without the levies, the district would have to use the general fund to pay for those projects, Watkins said - and there is no money in the general fund for them.

"You would see schools with leaky roofs, schools with bad heating and ventilation systems. ... You would see very dilapidated schools," Watkins said. "You'd see substantially less in the personnel budget for teacher pay."

Most schools across the state, particularly at the Class AA level, rely on special levies for building and technology projects, Watkins added. General fund budgets do include an allotment for buildings' core operations, but the amount is small and is the same across the board, regardless of how many buildings are in a district.

That means Kalispell, which has 14 schools and support facilities, gets the same amount as Whitefish, which has four school sites.

"If we only had two facilities, we could probably take care of a lot of our needs within the general fund," Watkins said. "But when you have 14 or 15 buildings you're trying to take care of ..."

In past years, the community has been supportive of the levies, he said. The requests always have passed by generous margins.

It may be a harder sell in the current economy, Watkins said, but he hopes voters will remember how important the money is to the district's students.

"This is the core to what we do," Watkins said. "If you don't have facilities that are well-maintained, that are safe, that have good circulation, that are updated, then the learning environment just isn't that good for kids."

More information about the levies is available at www.sd5.k12.mt.us/electns/electn_cfy/index.htm.

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