TONASKET – The Tonasket School Board set their levy rate at $2.39 per $1,000 of assessed property value, which will bring in $860,550 for the next two school years.

“This is a replacement maintenance and operations levy,” Catherine Stangland, board chairwoman, said. “Although this is a rate increase of 17 cents, assuming the Levy Equalization Act dollars remain the same, this levy actually does not replace the levy we passed two years ago. The state has already eliminated $100,000 from our budget this year, which we had already budgeted. We are anticipating another $200,000 in cuts.”

Stangland explained that Superintendent Paul Turner brought a document to the board recently which showed that the Tonasket School District is operating at the lowest rate of dollars per student in Okanogan Count. The next closest to the Tonasket School District are the Omak and Okanogan School Districts. The Omak School District, which passed a levy at the same rate in February, is generating $350 per student more than the Tonasket School District is operating at.

“Our levy produces quite a bit less per student than other districts,” Stangland said. “We know asking our voters for more money right now is difficult, but we’re trusting that even though this is a difficult time, our voters will get behind the students.”

This levy is for the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 school years and the district will be running it on April 27.