By Michael Howell
The Stevensville Elementary District and the Stevensville High School District will each be conducting a technology levy on the November 8, 2016 General Election ballot. The levy request in each district is $75,000. Because the Stevensville Elementary District and the Stevensville High School District are two separate districts, each district is required to run a separate levy election. Residents of both districts may vote on both the elementary and high school levies. Residents of the high school district may vote on the high school levy only.
No money raised by these proposed technology levies would be used to pay personnel. It goes to fund things like the purchase, rent, repair and maintenance of technological equipment, to pay for computer networks, cloud computing services, platform/software/network costs, licensed based internet services, storage and security, data/database, and computer based testing and curriculum.
There is an existing technology levy in each district for $25,000 annually that was approved by the voters to run in perpetuity back in 2002 in the elementary and 2003 in the high school, when the levies were first adopted.
If voters approve the new proposal, it would mean adding $50,000 to the current $25,000 levy, bringing the total levy request of $75,000. At the same time, if the new levy is passed, the $25,000 portion that was adopted to run in perpetuity will no longer last in perpetuity but will expire along with the total newly adopted levy in ten years. If the newly proposed levies fail to pass, nothing will change and the current $25,000 levy will continue in perpetuity as adopted.
If the proposed $50,000 levy is adopted on top of the existing $25,000, in the Elementary School District, the taxpayer will pay a total levy of $75,000, that is 6.19 mills. Owners of a home with a market value of $100,000 would pay $8.35, an increase of $5.57 over the current levy. Owners of a home with a market value of $200,000 would pay $16.71, an increase of $11.14 over the current levy.
If the proposed $50,000 levy is adopted on top of the existing $25,000, in the High School District, the taxpayer will pay a total levy of $75,000, that is 4.7 mills. Owners of a home with a market value of $100,000 would pay $6.34, an increase of $4.23 over the current levy. Owners of a home with a market value of $200,000 would pay $12.68, an increase of $8.45 over the current levy.
According to Stevensville School Superintendent Bob Moore, the voters showed a commitment to new technology back then for the long term when they had it run in perpetuity, but they simply couldn’t foresee the way that technology was going to mushroom as it embedded itself so thoroughly, not only in society at large, but in the educational process itself.
“Our computers, teaching equipment for the classrooms, technical infrastructure and many of our devices are aging out of useful life,” said Moore. He pulled some statistics together to illustrate the district’s situation. Some critical needs right now are replacing 231 computers that are over seven years old. 215 computers are over four years old. The software supporting the use of the district’s 68 SmartBoard devices in the classrooms will expire in 2018. Replacement of that software alone will cost about $28,000. According to Moore, costs and depreciation of devices and software exceeds $140,000 per year excluding inflation.
He said that the board could see no way around this levy proposal if they were going to continue to provide students with access to current technology and use the technology in the instructional setting at the levels desired to ensure that students are being properly prepared for today’s world.
Moore said that he is willing to go out to any business, community organization, or interested individuals and explain the details and the importance of these levy requests. He can be reached at 777-5481.