TWIN FALLS, Idaho — Twin Falls voters will decide whether to fund a two-year supplemental levy for $7.2 million per year for the Twin Falls School District in the November 5th election.
- The levy will fund armed security and School Resource Officers for all TFSD schools.
- It will also fund 20 teachers and 40 non-classified staff, like custodians, food service workers, and secretaries.
- The cost is estimated to be $19 per $100,000 taxable value. More than the current levy, which expires June 30th.
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(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
In the upcoming general election, Twin Falls voters will decide whether or not to fund a $7.2 million, two-year levy for the school district.
The funds will pay for teaching and maintenance staff, school security, and a portion of activities expenses
"If you pass levy, you pay for those things. If the levy doesn't pass, those are the things that have to be eliminated," Superintendent Brady Dickinson told me.
With student safety a top priority, the levy is needed to ensure there are armed security guards at every school, which became district policy two years ago.
"There's definitely a level of comfort knowing that you have an armed security person at every school," Dickinson said.
From school resource officers at the high schools and middle schools, to armed security guards at every elementary school, this levy would allow the district to maintain security measures at their current level.
The levy will also fund about 20 teachers and 40 classified staff like custodians, secretaries, and food service.
"I feel comfortable saying we're not top-heavy in the district and then the positions that we are funding for teachers, that helps us to keep class sizes down. And then it also helps us to be able to offer some additional programs and support," Dickinson said.
Additional programs like a new ag program in the high schools.
$500,000 of the levy will support transportation in ongoing efforts to keep student activities free.
"In districts where a levy has not passed, most of them have had to go to a pay-to-play scenario where parents have to pay upfront if their kids are going to participate in activities."
The requested levy would replace an existing levy of $5.7 million dollars, which is expiring.
The estimated tax impact is $7.58 per month for every $100,000 of taxable property value, or $1.58 more than the current levy rate.
The cost is going up a little bit, due to the expiration of covid funding, as well as changes at the state level to how lottery funds were allocated. The third factor in the increased request is inflation.
"Just like all of us are experiencing cost of doing business has gone up, particularly in transportation and other expenses that we had, (like) food service, and it cost more to operate in today's world," Dickinson said.
