School levies and bonds
The school is selling the bonds approved in 2006 for collection this year. The district is very excited about the excellent bond rating they received. This good rating allowed them to sell at a good rate. They attribute the good rating to “real” changes in the budget that will serve the district in the long run which increased the confidence in the bond raters.
In 2010, our district will ask the voters to approve a maintenance and operation levy, a bond levy to make new high schools and a technology levy. Because of the some great financial work by the deputy superintendant, Marcia Harris, and high property values in our area generally, it is projected that the tax payers will see the tax per $1000 of property value decrease over time.
The maintenance and operations levy provides 20% of the district’s general fund and is a continuation of usual money.
The bond levy will be to build new high schools. The schools are old and plans are in the works for a new Shorewood and a major renovation to Shorecrest. There is a parent group working with the district to design these new schools. Our Donnie North, who is by trade an architect, is on this committee. Thanks for the volunteer time. Our 4th graders should be the first Freshman class of the new Shorecrest High.
The technology Levy is a new one and will provide tech support for our laptops and computer labs.
What you can do
We will need bond and levy chairs to help run this campaign. The job starts in November 2009 for the election in November 2010. It is a pretty big commitment but an important one. Our own LFP resident and current school board president was once a bond chair if you’d like to ask her details about the job. Debi.Ehrlichman@shorelineschools.org