After spending most of the school year preparing for the worst, students, staff, and community members within Lakeland Joint School District 272 will find out the fate of their district.
May 20 the district’s supplemental levy will rerun a reduced $7.52 million levy. If voted yes, this levy will replace the current one that will expire June 30 2025, if voted no, the current million will not be replaced.
The estimated average annual cost to the taxpayer on the proposed levy is a tax of $82.32 per $100,000 of taxable assessed value per year. The levy will be assessed for two years.
Around 10-30 percent of a school’s budget comes from local property tax dollars and the rest from the state.
Throughout the school year students have been preparing for what they’ll possibly lose with the loss of levy funding.
Student athletes will need to participate in pay-to-play sports, spending upwards of $1,800 a year to play here at Lakeland.
Student Journalist for the Lakeland Hawkeye, Dreyden Smith’s, article “Pay to Play Comes to LHS with the Levy Failure” explained what sports would look like for LHS next year with pay-to-play sports, and it sadly looks like we won’t have many teams.
There is also the threat of losing teachers, clubs, and many benefits students have now.
When asked what he thinks about his community’s opinions on the levy Chase Peterson, senior at Lakeland High School, explained it as being very conflicting.
“It’s mixed, half say yes, half no, some people don’t understand how levies work. There has been a lot more information about the levy this time and it’s been spread around the community.” Peterson said, “Honestly, I don’t think it’s going to pass though, because people don’t want to pay property taxes, but the school needs the help.”
Peterson addressed his concern for teachers he’s learned from for the last four years, explaining that if the levy fails he doesn’t want to see his teachers without jobs.
“We won’t have electives, welding is really important to me. Having levy funding is important and should be voted for because it gives students more opportunities to do what they want to do when they grow up if they have a school that is well funded,” freshmen at LHS, Holden Meredith said.
As freshman, students got to have a taste of what high school has been like for the classes in the years before them, but their sophomore through senior years won’t be the same. It can be scary for them to not know what their school will look like in the future.
“I’d vote yes because it’ll help the school a lot and I want my younger sister to have the help she needs. It makes me feel bad for all the incoming freshmen because we got the nice stuff but the younger freshmen will have less than we did,” Freshman at LHS Kagan Strange said.