Monday, February 28, 2011

Instructional Support Levy

At their meeting on February 16, 2011, the Earlham Community School Board approved a resolution to consider participation in an Instructional Support Levy.  The ISL is a way for the district to provide a consistent funding stream for programming.  In this particular situation, the Board approved this funding for "improving the District's technology program, including the purchasing of services, equipment, and/or software, or any general fund purpose approved by the Board".  In addition, the approval of the resolution included the use of property taxes to fund the ISL for a period of 5 years as allowed by law.

As you may recall, the Earlham School Board has been vigilant in keeping the overall property tax rate the same for the past three years.  Their goal with this ISL is to continue that expectation.  Last year, the Board realized the importance of a significant increase in the Cash Reserve Levy to replace those dollars from the across-the-board reduction in State Aid.  At the same time, other funds were adjusted so that the overall rate would remain the same.  The intention of the Board is to institute the Instructional Support Levy for technology without raising the overall levy rate for property taxes.

A Public Hearing on this issue is scheduled for Monday, March 7th at 6:00 PM in the school library.