Northfield District Will Ask Voters to Approve a Higher Operating Levy in November

will send residents to the polls in November to vote on renewing and raising the operating levy.

Providing certainty and stability for the district’s children is the goal of two resolutions passed unanimously at Monday's Northfield School District board meeting, said board members.

“We don’t take this decision lightly,” board chair Kari Nelson said as she introduced the first of the two resolutions. The first resolution puts before voters a request to increase the operating levy and maintain the capital levy at its current rate.

At 10 years and $1,584.76 per pupil, the proposed levy is the longest and highest allowed by state law. The board’s request is no doubt influenced by the state’s recent budget crisis and the fact that school aid in recent years has failed to keep up with inflation.

The proposed operating levy is up about $300 from the existing operating levy, approved in 2006, of about $1,270 per pupil. The new levy would mean an increase of about $60 annually for each $100,000 in property value.

But the local levy provides just a part of the district’s revenue, making decisions at the state level of great importance. Superintendent Chris Richardson said the recently ratified state budget increases from 30 to 40 percent the portion of state education payments deferred to one academic year later than it is owed.

Because of good stewardship, Richardson said, Northfield schools have $7.5 million in the district’s unreserved fund balance on which to draw while waiting for the delayed state payment. But Northfield is an exception, he said, and almost every district in the state will have to borrow this year to cover the gap. That means that funds that would have paid for teachers will have to pay interest instead, he said.

The a $36.2 million budget for the 2011-12 school year, down $705,000 from the previous year's budget.

The board on Monday passed a second resolution calling for five polling places for the Nov. 8, 2011, election in which voters will weigh in on the levy request.