Voters in Leelanau County sent mixed messages to a local school district when they went to the polls this week. For the small school in Leland – .
“Taxpayers supported the operating millage for Leland Public School which allows us to keep our doors open,” said Leland School Board President Bill Robinson.
Voters passed the operating millage for the Leland School – it will raise over $4 million for the school’s operating expenses. Leland Public School Superintendent Stephanie Long said, “The millage is for our operating expense, it’s what required of us to collect from taxpayers to receive our state aid.”
But voters said no to a smaller request – the Sinking Fund would have brought in $200,000 a year for three years. It’s a fairly common “ask” that typically happens every three years. “They’re both tax levies,” says Long.
“We’ve talked a lot about that in the last two days about what might have led to that not passing,” Long said. While voters have historically supported the sinking fund proposals, there was no sinking fund proposal on the ballot in 2018. That’s because the school had just put out a request for a construction bond – voters approved that project for a brand new gym and elementary school. The school just opened its doors on the new project in April.
“We moved into our new elementary school about 2 ½ weeks ago, which has been incredibly exciting to see,” Long says. Robinson adds, “It’s helped morale quite a bit. I describe this as a big success story for the entire community. This was six years in the making.”
The project also included a main office building renovation, and new 2nd story for middle school classrooms. The superintendent says it’s possible some people saw the brand new building and thought the school didn’t need the money. “We were using the construction bond money to pay for the major construction project. But the sinking fund is separate. That’s what allows us for upgrades and improvements,” said Long.
The Sinking Fund allows for those needed upgrades, ongoing improvements, and even emergency repairs. “It allows for technology improvements, it allows for sidewalks, it allows for roof repair, for HVAC overhauls,” Long says.
“The sinking fund isn’t a bond. It’s like a savings account. We go for the money, then it’s there. And over the course of three years we create a schedule of improvements or upgrades to the building that need to occur.” Long added, “We levy the money, it comes to the school, then we appropriate it over the three years of that cycle, to make the improvements that we need.”
The superintendent also says that was also on Tuesday’s ballot may have confused some voters – who as well. “There was a controversial township millage that was controversial as well,” said Long. “So one of our thoughts is maybe there was some confusion about that sort of controversial issue.” Long says a postcard sent out to voters urging people to vote “No” on the township’s millage renewal also mentioned the school, which may have contributed to the confusion.
Long acknowledges there may be questions about the need for different kinds of tax levies, “There may have been, I think, some confusion between what a construction bond is, separate from a sinking fund, separate from, for example our operating renewal millage. School funding is a little wonky and those are three different pots of money.”
Robinson said, “The sinking fund has just been for ongoing building projects. We put in a generator, we’ve done flooring and windows in older parts of the school.”
Both Superintendent Long and the Board President Robinson agree that just because the Sinking Fund didn’t pass doesn’t mean they’re out of options. The School Board will be meeting again on Friday to discuss putting it on the ballot in the future. Long says, “We need to do a better job of educating our community, regarding what those pots of money are for and how we use them.”
Robinson says, “Our sinking fund went down to defeat by close margin… those were for long term projects on the other end of the building.” He adds that the sinking fund proposal is something voters have renewed “each time we’ve gone out, and we’ll probably go back out sometime again.”
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