By Stephen Smoot
Voters passed on supporting a school levy in the spring election. Officials have come back with a revised and scaled down proposal for the November ballot.
Hardy County Schools Superintendent Dr. Sheena Van Meter made a public announcement on Facebook last Thursday evening. She shared “high points of the new, revised levy order that will be on the November ballot.” Officials made revisions to the levy based on “feedback from the community” and removed all from the levy outside of funding for “approximately 20 school level positions.”
“By doing so, we have cut the cost to the citizens of Hardy County more than 50 percent compared to the levy that was on the May ballot,” stated Superintendent Van Meter.
On an image of the official document shared in the post, the stated purpose of the levy lay in “funding to maintain current and additional needed positions above the funding formula provided by the state, to improve and enhance Hardy County’s instructional program, school safety, and/or student support programs.”
Annually, the levy would collect $1,300,459 to meet those needs.
The levy would impose 3.79 cents per $100 in value for Class I property, 7.58 cents for Class II, 15.16 cents for Class III, and the same for Class IV.
Hardy County Schools officials have in the past described the system’s pressing needs, some of which are unique to this county relative to the rest of the state. A large foreign-born population of schoolchildren of legally employed noncitizens has brought 15 non-English native languages into the system. Some of these languages come from tribal regions of Central America and have no system of writing.
The same population has also given Hardy County Schools a higher than average special education population of children with which the system struggles.
Additionally, the cost of all school system inputs has risen dramatically in the past 10 years. At the same time, the reliability of equipment and vehicles, especially school buses, has declined, forcing added infrastructure costs. Officials have pointed out that those rising costs have forced difficult decisions on less affluent districts.
The West Virginia Department of Education strongly discourages school systems from employing more than the school aid formula provides unless voters approve a levy to help.
Putting a levy on a ballot does come with a cost of time and work on the part of school advocates. They put together a committee, plan outreach, and work to build support.
In May, the proposed levy covered more ground. In addition to the $1.3 million slated to support 20 positions, it also would have included $720,000 for “academic intervention support,” $115,000 for student athlete support, $400,000 for employee compensation support, and $25,000 for facilities.
The May version also had the rates per $100 in value as double what is being proposed in November.
Outside of the $1.3 million for employment, none of the rest of the proposals will be on the November ballot.
If passed, the levy would be in place for five years and be subject to voter approval at that point to continue.
One development that could potentially bring huge benefits to counties with excess levies is the construction of a data center within the county. A county with no excess levy that hosts a 1 GW data center would receive $17 million in taxes directed to schools. Those counties with excess levies that host a 1 GW data center would receive that same $17 million in base taxes plus $63 million from the levy.
Amounts received are tied to the GW level of the center. More GWs mean more money for the county and county school systems.
