2025 Levies

Supplemental operations levy 

The supplemental operations levy is a three-year levy. In 2026 and 2027, BPS would collect $4 million each year. In 2028, we would collect $5 million (that increase is based on inflation estimates and a small 1% projected growth in enrollment that year).

Over the three-year life of the levy, the district would collect $13 million.  

Facilities maintenance levy  

The facilities maintenance levy is a six-year levy. Between 2026 and 2031, BPS would collect $11 million each year, a total of $66 million over the life of the levy.  

If approved, in 2026 property owners would pay $3.27 per $1,000 of assessed value. That means an average property owner, whose home has an assessed value of approximately $650,000, will see an increase of approximately $16.15 per month in 2026. After that, the tax rate will remain stable at an average of $3.29 for the duration of the levies.  

Let’s say your home is valued at $650,000 and you want to calculate how much you’d pay in taxes in 2026. The estimated tax rate for school levies and bonds in 2026 is $3.27.   

$650,000 / $1,000 = 650 

650 * $3.27 = $ 2,125 

In this example, you would pay about $2,125 annually for school district taxes or $177 per month. 

It’s important to keep in mind that the district collects a set amount of money from our community each year.

Your ballot shows the estimated tax rate for the supplemental operations and facilities maintenance levies. 

The $3.29 average rate includes existing levies and bonds, essential to maintaining and enhancing public education in our schools.

For 2025, our combined tax rate is $3.07 per $1,000 dollars of assessed value.  That’s a combination of:

·       Operations levy $1.18

·       Technology levy $0.65

·       Bond $1.24

An easy way to remember the difference is that “levies are for learning and bonds are for building.” Levies can be used to support salaries, programs, software, hardware, curriculum, services and more. They can also be used for staffing that supports the application and implementation of technology.  

Bond dollars are restricted to our capital facility rebuilds and improvements and any other expenses related to our schools and buildings. We run our replacement levies every four years, and at times, ask our community to consider additional levies to support our schools.

In fall 2025, we are running a facilities maintenance levy, which is a type of capital levy. If approved, we would receive money over the time of the levy (six years) but without the long-term financing costs that come with bonds (like a mortgage for a home). Bonds allow us to finance a large sum up front, more typically used when building a new facility. The capital levy is for major renovations and system replacements.

Programs that provide mental health specialists, migrant summer school, and services to our multilingual learners are proposed to be cut in President Trump’s proposed budget, affecting the 2026-27 school year.  These cuts have yet to be passed through a budget bill, but the uncertainty makes those funding sources unstable, making the support of our community more essential than ever.  The state recognizes that communities like ours want to help and during the 2025 legislative session increased our authority to levy, making it possible for us to ask our voters for a supplemental levy.

School funding is complex. While we get funding from the state, it not adequate. Here are some key examples of where and how the state falls short:

• As a district, we pay for utilities and insurance across 22 schools and additional facilities (transportation, facilities, Central Kitchen, District Office, Community Transitions and Family Partnership). The state gives us money for these expenses, but the shortfall is close to $3 million. We rely on local levies to make up that shortfall.
• Here are other examples:
  • The state says teachers should receive a cost-of-living increase next year of 2.5%, which costs $4.3 million. The state only funds $2.5 million.
  • The state does not provide funding for athletics and activities. For this current school year, we budgeted $4 million in our “28” account, which is for all extracurricular activities.