Voters in the Philomath School District will be asked to renew a five-year operating levy during the November election.
Since it’s a straight-up renewal, approving the levy would not result in a tax increase. The district said it’s expected to raise about $1.2 million a year.
Philomath School Board member Christopher McMorran said it funds things like performing arts, athletics, and other activities that are popular with students.
“If we don’t get that funding, we’re still required by the state to offer our core subjects, like reading, math, science," he said. "So those would stay, which means that those other topics, those things that have a lot of worth to our students would be the first things to go.”
Philomath voters initially approved the levy by a narrow margin in 2013. It passed by a much wider margin when it was last up for renewal in 2018. No one filed any statement against it in the voters pamphlet, and as of late September, no committees were actively raising funds either in support or opposition of the measure.
McMorran said the school board decided that asking for a dollar-for-dollar renewal was a better political strategy than using the levy's renewal as an opportunity to increase the rate.
"There are a lot of folks that maybe aren't doing the best financially right now, and we don't want to ask our community for a tax increase at a time like this," he said. "We really appreciate the support that the Philomath community and western Benton County have given to our district, and we don't want to ask for more than we feel we need at the moment."
