Idaho Press-Tribune staff: The Melba School District is anticipating a budget shortfall of about $364,000 in the upcoming school year, and the district has asked voters for a one-year, $275,000 supplemental levy to help make ends meet.
The district has already trimmed $800,000 in the last year to make a balanced budget.
Six certified staff positions and four classified staff positions have been lost in the past three years. The district has also cut its employee benefits and sports programs, while instituting a four-day school week.
If the levy fails, the district could cut high school coaches, junior high athletics, elementary teachers, supplies and 10 days from the teaching calendar. Class sizes could increase, and schools would have to do without basic supplies like paper and pencils.
Other upcoming levies:
– Vallivue School District’s supplemental levy of $4.5 million a year for two years is the same amount passed by voters in 2010 and 2011.
Vallivue officials say the district needs the levy to continue serving students in the face of increasing enrollment and cuts in state funding.
Vallivue has cut $3.3 million in spending over the last three years. Average class sizes have increased from 35 to 37 students as a result of 46 positions being eliminated.
– Middleton School District’s proposed levy would continue the current rates approved by voters for 2010 and 2011.
Without the $1.06 million per year, the district will be forced to cut programs and positions not funded by the state. These include athletics programs, school nurses, librarians, counselors and security officers.
Middleton Superintendent Richard Bauscher said the district has already cut about $1.9 million, or 12.9 percent, from its annual budget because of reductions in state funding in the past year. Middleton now ranks 97 out of 115 Idaho districts in the amount spent per student.
– Middleton Rural Fire Protection District asks voters to support a $575,240 two-year levy in order to keep a staff of full-time firefighters in place. If the levy does not pass, the fire district said it will have to return to an all-volunteer force, resulting in slower response times and increased insurance rates for businesses and property owners.
Commissioner Mike Ingram explained the override levy was proposed after a fire caused considerable damage to Middleton High School in 2007. Voters approved the override levy that allows the fire district to pay for a full-time staff to protect the community, but it expires every two years unless voters allow it to continue. If it passes, taxes will not go up because tax payers would continue to pay the same rate as before.
