School Board to Decide Tuesday Whether to Ask Voters for More Money

The District 622 School Board plans to vote Tuesday on whether to ask voters to simply renew an existing operating levy, or to increase it, the Star Tribune reports.

Although the district could wait until 2012 to hold a vote to renew the levy, doing so a year early will give the board time to change its plans or try again next year if it fails, according to the article.

The levy now brings in $830 per pupil, or about $10 million, the article says.

According to a report by Springsted, which completed 400 telephone interviews with district voters between May 31 and June 5, 56 percent of those interviewed said they favor renewing the levy and 52 percent said they would support increasing the levy by $97 per year for a homeowner with an assessed value of $188,000.

In a prior meeting on the issue, the School Board members said they supported putting the renewal issue on the ballot this fall, but the board was divided on whether to ask voters for more money, the Oakdale-Lake Elmo Review reports.