School Board Works on Levy With Eyes on Olympia

ABERDEEN, Wash. - The Aberdeen School District is preparing their levy for 2013 and 2014. The problem, School Superintendent Tom Opstad said, is that the school's current proposed levy is nearly $5 million, and state levy equalization funds account for nearly half of that. However, with legislators returning to Olympia to cut deeper into the state's budget Opstad said "There are a couple of things they are looking at, from completely removing levy equalization, which for our district would be a tremendous challenge."
Another alternative would cut funds by about %25, resulting in a $620,000 reduction. Opstad added at this point that may be the best case scenario "We can only collect $900,000 more and we're at our levy ceiling."
With limits on school levies, Opstad said the district would never make up the amount lost if the equalization program was cut completely.