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NEW ULM -- Thursday evening the school board approved setting the payable 2027 levy at the maximum.
It is recommended to set the levy at maximum and Vice Chair Johnathan Schiro, who motioned for the approval, said that the levy has been set at maximum every year that he has been on the board.
District 88 Manager Matthew Moline explained that setting the levy at maximum gives time for final adjustments to be made by the Minnesota Department of Education, "As they're correcting and getting all those things [set] we just do maximum now and wait until December [to finalize things.]"
Moline said that the levy is anticipated to be relatively flat, with a 0.08% decrease from the previous year which was set at $8.92 million.
"Mainly a little decrease in the donor fund and slight increase in community service and debt service, but a combined $7,300 difference," Moline said.
Although the levy is relatively similar to last year's, new legislative changes regarding upgrades to lighting and elevators put pressure on funds.
Changes in Minnesota law now prohibit sales and distribution of many of the fluorescent lights used in schools. Elevator safety codes were also updated, requiring upgrades to elevators that were compliant with codes until the recent update.
Superintendent Sean Koster said that these changes would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Districts have hundreds to thousands of fluorescent light fixtures and nearly every school barring ones that have been built in the past few years will be affected by the change in law.
The district has a few years before action is needed, but with hundreds of thousands of dollars of upgrades in addition to the standard annual expenses there is concern.
In turn, the board approved a resolution to urge legislature to amend Minnesota statutes to include commissioner-approved costs for lighting and elevator changes in the LTFM (Long-term facility maintenance) revenue calculation.
The hope is that the Minnesota School Boards Association will successfully lobby for these changes to be taken into account when calculating the LTFM revenue.
The next study session will be held Oct. 8.
The next school board meeting will be held Oct. 22.