Proposed 2024 Local Option Levy Renewal

Download the PDF of the resolution.

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RESOLUTION No. 6859

Call for Five-Year Local Option Levy to Support Schools

RECITALS

A. Strong, healthy public schools are the foundation of Portland and are vital to educating students to prepare them for college, work, life and their future; supporting families and equitable student outcomes; keeping neighborhoods thriving; building community; and strengthening the local economy.

B. Portland Public Schools (PPS) serves more than 44,000 students and enrolls a high proportion of the city’s students in its schools.

C. Through conversations and engagement with the greater Portland school community, PPS created a vision that reimagines what and how our students will graduate prepared for college, career and beyond. After identifying the essential skills and attributes educators should have and changes needed in our school systems, PPS released a multi-year strategic plan focused on all students having equitable opportunities and supports to achieve high academic goals and outcomes.

D. PPS’s staffing levels and educational programming, which support every student’s success, are essential to realizing PPS’s vision and implementing the strategic plan.

E. For over two decades, Portland voters have shown their support for strong schools and educational programs by approving and renewing a local option levy to fund PPS schools.

F. As recently as 2019, voters again affirmed their support for Portland Public Schools and its students by passing a five-year local option levy to support teaching positions and educational programs with 77% approval.

G. Since it passed in 2019, the local option levy has supported an average of 850 teaching positions each school year, contributing to the school district’s equitable staffing of schools and commitment to providing necessary supports for struggling or underserved students.

H. PPS has dedicated significant focus and resources to supporting students following the pandemic, including specialized support in reading and math, as well as more counselors, social workers and mental health supports.

I. This local option levy requires independent oversight by the Community Budget Review Committee (CBRC) to ensure that levy dollars are used only for purposes approved by local voters.

J. The CBRC has affirmed, in annual reports to the PPS Board of Education, that local option funds have primarily been used to fund hundreds of teachers and maintain or lower class sizes.

K. PPS intends that all funds raised under this proposed levy will be used for Portland students in PPS schools; and none of the funds will be intended for distribution under the state school funding formula.

L. The District has an independent financial audit annually and independent performance audits of District operations.

RESOLUTION

1. The Board shall ask voters to approve a five-year local option levy in May 2024 that will provide an estimated $101.5 million in 2025-2026; $103.0 million in 2026-2027; $106.0 million in 2027-2028; $109.3 million in 2028-2029; and $112.5 million in 2029-30.

2. The levy revenue shall be used to fund teaching positions at every school in the District, ensuring students have access to a well-rounded education with many equitable enrichments for elementary and middle grades and focused electives that help prepare high school students for a career or college, including career and technical programs and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) programs.

The levy revenue could also fund other classroom support positions across the District, such as educational assistants, reading specialists, and special education certified personnel, to help identify students with mental or behavioral health issues, academic issues, or other needs.

3. The fully allowable levy rate shall continue to be $1.99 per $1,000 of assessed value. The cost for a home with an assessed value of $275,706, the current average in the PPS district, would be $45.72 per month.

4. The Community Budget Review Committee will continue to provide independent oversight so that the funds are spent as the voters intended. The CBRC will continue to publish an annual report about the use of the local option revenues and their contribution to student achievement.

5. The Board will continue to require performance audits of the District’s activities, programs and services to support efficient use of resources, as well as to seek opportunities to improve school effectiveness and capacity-building for increased accountability. Audits will continue to be conducted by internal auditors who will work at the direction of the Board to define the scope and design of audits.

6. The Board of Directors of School District No. 1J, Multnomah County, Oregon, finds that, for the reasons and purposes described in the proposed measure set forth below, it is necessary and appropriate to levy a local option tax under ORS 280.040 et seq. for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025, and for four additional fiscal years thereafter each commencing July 1.

7. A serial levy election is hereby called to be held at the General Election on the 21st day of May, 2024, in the manner and between the hours provided by law, at which there shall be submitted to the electors of School District No. 1J, Multnomah County, Oregon.

8. PPS authorizes the Board Chair, Superintendent, or the Superintendent’s designee (the “Authorized Representative”) to take any actions necessary to place the measure that is attached as Exhibit A on the May 21, 2024, election ballot, and to place the explanatory statement that is attached as Exhibit B in the voter’s pamphlet for that election. The Authorized Representative shall file the measure with the elections officer of Multnomah County not later than March 1, 2024, and the explanatory statement not later than March 21, 2024. The Authorized Representative is authorized to make technical corrections or correct typographical errors to the filed documents.

Download the PDF of the report.

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Date: January 25, 2024
To: PPS Board of Education
From: Lisa Merrick, Senior Manager, Government Relations
Liz Large, Contracted General Counsel
Subject: Recommendation to refer renewal of Portland Public Schools’s Local Option Levy to the May 2024 Primary Election
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BACKGROUND
Portland Public Schools’s five-year local option levy was renewed by 77% of the district’s voters in November 2019 at a rate of $1.99 per $1,000 of assessed property value. Similar to many districts across the state, PPS supplements dollars allocated through the state school fund by administering a local option levy, which has funded over 800 teaching positions.
In 2024-25, PPS is projected to receive $110,067,000 in revenue from the levy. In order to continue the levy and sustain this level funding for classroom positions from 2025-2030, the Board will need to refer the renewal to district voters for approval, and we recommend that the Board do so at the the May 21, 2024, primary election. This approach is in alignment with the recommendation made last summer on the timing of the local option levy renewal by the Board’s Local Option Levy Committee.
To place the levy on the May 2024 ballot, the Board needs to vote to renew the local option levy at the current rate of $1.99 per $1,000 of assessed property value or to refer a different rate on the local option levy to the May 2024 ballot.
FISCAL IMPACT
The local option levy renewal at the current rate of $1.99 per $1,000 of assessed property is projected to raise $111.3 million in 2025-2026; $112.6 million in 2026-2027; $113.8 million in 2027-2028; $115.1 million in 2028-2029; and $116.4 million in 2029-30, which would support an estimated 750-800 teaching positions.

According to Oregon statute, school district local option collections are excluded from the State School Fund formula up to a prescribed limit. The limit is updated each year, and for Fiscal year 2024, the limit is $123,238,555 for Portland Public Schools.

It is important to note, if projected collections are close to the applicable limit, future growth in levy revenue could result in actual revenues exceeding the limit and impact the amount the District can collect without sacrificing revenue to the State School Fund formula. The District will need to advocate for and secure a change in state law to maintain all revenue collections as the voters’ intend. According to the most recent projections, Portland Public Schools is not expected to reach the statutory limit during the upcoming levy cycle if it renews the local option levy at the current rate of $1.99 per $1,000 of assessed property.

KEY DATES AND DEADLINES

• March 1, 2024: Notice of ballot title due to Multnomah County Elections
• March 21, 2024: Measure filing deadline (noticed and completed)
• March 25, 2024: Voters’ pamphlet statements due
• May 21, 2024: Primary Election

Staff proposes the following actions to meet the timeline listed above:

• February 6: Board meeting and discussion
• February 20: Board meeting and vote on referral to the ballot; notice to the Tax Supervising and Conservation Commission (TSCC).

STAFF RECOMMENDATION

Staff recommends the Portland Public Schools Board of Directors refer the local option levy to voters to be considered in the May 2024 primary election and maintain the rate of $1.99 per $1,000 of assessed property value