The Meridian School District, whose levy request failed last year, will ask voters to approve a property tax levy that would raise $14 million each year for two years.
Meridian, the state’s biggest district with more than 35,000 students, will join Boise, Nampa, Caldwell and Vallivue in asking voters for supplemental levies.
If the levy is approved by a simple majority, $4 million of it would replace the existing $4 million supplemental levy that will expire this spring. The $4 million is part of the Meridian district’s current operating budget.
The additional $10 million would be used to restore the nine school days that have been cut from the school year to reduce costs. The days will be added back to the calendar in the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years.
The money would go toward increasing contract days for teachers and administrators and to pay the hourly wages for positions like bus drivers and special education assistants, said district spokesman Eric Exline.
Over the next two years, the School District will lose funding from three one-time sources: $4 million from its expiring supplemental levy; $1.5 million in federal jobs bill money; and $7.1 million from its reserve account.
The levy would add $115 per $100,000 of taxable value to property tax bills annually for two years.
Despite a history of successful tax levies, voters in May defeated the Meridian district’s two-year, $18.5-million-a-year levy request by 57 percent to 42 percent.
As a result of that levy loss, district officials cut 139 jobs — including 62 teachers — and 14 days from this year’s school calendar.
The Meridian School District also covers parts of West Boise, Eagle and Star.
Cynthia Sewell: 377-6428
