Request will cost taxpayers less than levy proposed in November
If approved, the new levy will generate $2,631,975, and it will cost property owners $20.13 per month more per $100,000 of property value. Funding from the levy will be used for day-to-day operations.
Dover City Schools board of education voted at its Jan. 14 meeting to place an operating levy on the ballot on May 7. This request will cost taxpayers less than the levy proposed in November 2018 while providing enough funding to maintain the excellence Dover values in its schools.
“We listened to the taxpayers. We understand how incredibly burdensome any tax increase can be to our hard-working community. So we went back to the drawing board and revised our request,” said Jeannine Kennedy, board president.
The district will make the budget reductions outlined in November. Superintendent Carla Birney said, “Projecting our current budget-reduction savings over several years, along with potential long-term efficiencies from the elementary reconfiguration plan, allows us to lower this request. Over the past few months we have heard from many community members that the request was simply too high, and we are trying to be responsive to that. We worked hard to reduce the millage for citizens while maintaining the level and quality of programming our community expects and deserves.”
If approved, the new levy will generate $2,631,975, and it will cost property owners $20.13 per month more per $100,000 of property value. Funding from the levy will be used for day-to-day operations.
“Simply put, our long tradition of excellence in our schools is at stake. We cannot run our schools any leaner than we have for the past decade,” Kennedy said. “We cannot take school excellence for granted; it’s not a given. The district needs additional resources now, or we will continue down a path of financial instability.”