Special Election for Revenue Purpose Statement: What does it mean?

Should the community vote to approve the RPS, two primary things will happen.  First, the District will continue to pay current district debt with a large portion of the sales tax pennies.  This practice has already allowed our local Board of Education to contain our property tax levy rate the past eight years.  The total school levy has actually decreased three of the last four years.  An approval of the RPS coupled with our current fund balances would allow the District to lower the levy again next spring.

Second, the funds generated by the one-cent sales tax will be utilized to provide expanded technology learning for our local students.  We plan to provide iPad devices for every high school student next fall and we are already beginning to utilize iPads in some of our elementary schools.  These contemporary tools will never replace strong teachers, but have been proven to improve student engagement in learning, improve student attendance, develop higher order thinking skills, and to allow students to communicate on a much broader basis.   Our nearby neighbors Knoxville, Oskaloosa, and Grinnell-Newburg Schools are all reporting great successes with similar one-to-one technology initiatives and both school districts in Pella plan to roll out their versions next fall.

What if the community does not approve the RPS?  The District will continue to receive the funds, but legislation specifically dictates their use. The list in rank order includes: Debt Service Levy, Physical Plant and Equipment Levy, and the payment of principal and interest on any Sales Tax Revenue Bonds.  Our Sales Tax Revenue Bonds have already been paid off with sales tax funds, so that’s off the table.  Therefore the sales tax funds could only be used to pay down district Debt Service and the Physical Plant and Equipment Levy.  This would then diminish the need for property tax dollars in these two areas.  However, it would expand the need for property tax dollars in other parts of the school budget to backfill the loss in funding currently covering several educational program expenses.   For example, the Instructional Support Levy would then be targeted for a possible increase.   A failed RPS would also eliminate the District’s ability to provide the student learning technology mentioned earlier.