Voters to decide on Jefferson S.D. levy in May
After a well-attended community straw poll Tuesday night, many board members argued the district could not ignore the call from patrons to at least hold a levy election.
There was dissent from several trustees.
Trustee Paul Hepworth said by not holding the levy, it sends a clear message to Boise that school districts won’t just pull themselves up by their own boot straps by putting pressure on the taxpayers anymore when the funding should be coming in from the state.
Others argued that reasoning would only hurt students and in the end, a call for a levy vote passed.
Superintendent Ron Tolman took the budget discussion a step further by making a motion to take voluntary cuts in the administrative offices.
“We began the process today by reassigning our assistant superintendent as an assistant superintendent principal,” said Tolman. “Reassigning two of our district-level office secretaries to school-level. We’ll be dealing with significantly less support next year. I’ll be taking on some additional duties by leading the supervision of certain programs. We’re all going to try to do a little more with a little less.”
The $1 million levy election will be held in May. The decision to hold an election comes just before the final deadline next week.
14-year board chairman, Glade Peterson also announced his retirement at the meeting. He and his family plan to move to Honduras.
