Levy election requests are on the horizon for the Lakeland Joint School District.

The district’s long range planning committee met Monday evening for a thorough discussion about asking Lakeland residents to go to the polls for a same-day supplemental levy election and school plant facilities levy election.

Members of the committee will bring recommendations to the Lakeland School Board during its regular meeting Nov. 9. They will recommend the district ask for a two-year supplemental levy, with the amount falling at or somewhere between $9.52 million per year — which is the amount of the most recent supplemental that expires at the end of the school year — and $10.37 million, which includes a 9% increase from the previous amount to adjust for inflation. Committee members will also recommend to the board the district pursue a six-year school plant facilities levy with the amount falling at or somewhere between $1.146 million per year and, again to consider inflation, $1.646 million per year. The recommendation is to place both levy asks on the March 14 ballot.

“2021, we had an $8.9 million levy, a $1.1 plant levy and a $1.4 million bond, for $11.5 million,” said Brian Wallace, Lakeland’s finance and operations director. “The next year, the supplemental went up but the bond levy went down, so what was collected, that $11.6 million, was pretty close to a push for the previous year. Even though the market value went up, people really weren’t paying more school taxes because we weren’t asking for any more money, relatively.”

The previous school plant facilities levy, which was not reauthorized, is at $0 this school year, Wallace said.

“We’re asking for a million dollars less than last year,” he said.

Levies add funding from local property taxes to school district budgets. Supplemental levies are built into Idaho’s education code and called "supplemental" because they add to funding school districts receive from the state. They fill the gap left by the lack of state funding and help pay for salaries and benefits, safety and security measures, athletics, transportation, extracurricular activities and other programming. Money from a school plant facilities levy goes to maintenance and repair of existing buildings and facilities — furniture purchases, new carpeting, heating and air conditioning systems, patching roofs, repairing parking lots and other upkeep projects that require constant attention.

“We’re basically chipping away at big-picture stuff,” Facilities Director Mike Ferriola said. “We just replaced the boiler at Timberlake High School. It was work that needed to be done, but you don’t really see that work, right? ‘The building was warm yesterday, the building is warm today.’ Some of that is maintaining some of the systems that go down.”

The topic of “sticker shock” was a big piece of the conversation. As market prices go up and inflation continues to affect people’s livelihoods and pocketbooks, long range planning committee members, along with Superintendent Lisa Arnold and Lakeland School Board Chair Michelle Thompson, discussed dollar amounts and what people will be able to afford as they support their local public schools. The plant levy will require 55% of voter approval to pass. The supplemental levy requires just more than 50%.

“I do want us to be cognizant of the fact that nobody really knows what this is going to look like in the next couple of years, as far as inflation. The cost of gas is driving up everything,” Arnold said. “We have people living on limited income.”

Thompson said transparency is going to be a big component as these levy asks go to the community.

“I know the community is extremely frustrated or at least was extremely frustrated; we keep asking for levies but it doesn’t seem like much changes,” she said, adding that the district hadn’t adequately communicated levy needs in the past. “With our new superintendent, we have made an intentional effort to repair those relationships with the community, get that information into the hands of the taxpayers so we’re all on the same page, we’re all on the same team and we’re all trying to help the district grow and move forward in the right direction for the benefit of those kids because they’re our future community members.”

Mailers will be sent to Lakeland residents with information about these upcoming requests. Committee members will meet again Nov. 7 to finalize details ahead of the November school board meeting.