School district approves emergency levy

A special emergency school fund levy has been authorized by the Mountain Home School District Board of Trustees for the current fiscal year.

The special levy, estimated to raise about $478,00 for school operations, will cost homeowners approximately $60 annually for every $100,000 of assessed valuation.

Superintendent of Schools Tim McMurtrey said the district was allowed to authorize the levy under state law because of an increase of approximately 115 students in the district this year.

Although the district closed a school on base due to declining enrollment among elementary students on base, overall the district experienced an increase in students, the first time in several years that has happened. The district's attendance figures had been declining since about 2000.

State law did not require voter approval for the special levy.

This week the Mountain Home School District also will be sending out the annual federal survey cards to parents, which must be filled out and returned to the district.

The cards help the district determine how many students are children of federal employees, such as base personnel, and how many are not. The results of the survey help determine how much Impact Aid money the district will receive, a federal program that compensates the district for families that work for certain federal programs or which live on base (and thereby do not pay property taxes to the district). In recent years about $3 million of the districts $21 million general fund revenue budget comes from federal Impact Aid reimbursements.