MERIDIAN -- The Meridian School District is once again asking homeowners to fund a supplemental levy.
The district tried last year, but the levy failed with about 57 percent of voters saying "no" to higher taxes.
District officials know the economy will be an issue once again. So this year they are asking for $9 million less than last year.
But what they want voters to understand is that the biggest chunk of this year's $28 million levy isn't going to restoring positions or building new schools, it will be used to provide students more opportunity to learn.
The supplemental levy would be for two years and it would increase property taxes.
On a home with $100,000 in taxable value, property taxes would go up by about $115 per year, or $9.58 per month. The levy expires after two years.
Meridian School District spokesman Eric Exline says the main purpose of the levy is to restore the school days that have been cut from the school year.
Nine instructional school days were cut last year as a way to save money after last year's levy failed. Exline says the district wants to restore those days, but they need money to do so.
"We're really just trying to get school days back because of our concern that kids do not have time to learn everything that they're supposed to be learning in terms of the core standards, what's typically been in a curriculum," said Exline. "If you think of a kindergartener coming to school and our system ran this way for the next 13 years, they'd lose out on 2/3 of a year of school."
If the levy passes, the school days will be added back to the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 school years.
Voters will decide if they want to fund the supplemental levy on Tuesday, March 13.
