Lower school tax may cause future problems

Taxpayers will see a lower-than-expected school district tax levy this year, though administration warns this low number will be a one-year deal.

During the March Creston Community School District board meeting, Business Manager Billie Jo Greene said that since publishing the proposed tax rate, changes have been made at the state level.

“The tax rate has actually dropped again. It will be $11.08628 [per every $1,000 in assessed property value]. What was published was $11.51,” Greene said. “That is due to the Senate File 2201, where the budget guarantee is no longer property tax, it’s now state aid.”

A budget guarantee is a budget adjustment for school districts with declining enrollment. The guarantee gives the district a 1% increase in funding over the previous year’s budget to act as a buffer against revenue loss.

CCSD Superintendent Deron Stender said that close to 90% of Iowa school districts are on budget guarantees this year. He explained that the state, knowing many school districts would need more funding, has shifted the school tax levies in order to have less of an impact on local taxpayers. For Creston, this resulted in a $0.43 dip in the levy total.

“This isn’t something that the state said, ‘We’re going to do every year,’” Stender said. “This is a one-time shift to provide the property tax relief because they know that districts, because of the low SSA that they have given for state funding, would increase the amount of school districts being on the budget guarantee, which means districts then go back up and tax the taxpayers.”

Stender said that while this is convenient now, more problems will likely come up in the future.

“They sell it as, ‘We gave schools a lot of money.’ This is included when they talk about funding that they gave public schools this year. That 2%, they’re including the money that they’re given districts that cover this budget guarantee,” Stender said. “So they’re saying, ‘Schools are funded, they’re healthy, you know, they’re flushed with cash. We’re taking care of them.’ That is not the truth. Yes, we’re receiving money this year, but next year we have to answer the taxpayers when that goes up.”

Though Stender and district administration have been looking to find more ways to increase the budget, it often feels like the legislation is not working with them.

“We had a bill that was going through and passed through the House. Every House member voted for it. It was supposed to be attached to a committee in the Senate that never got passed forward,” Stender said.

The bill focused on supplementary aid given to public schools to help compensate for the loss of a student attending a private school. Explaining more in his monthly report, Stender said this bill would have given school boards the authority to use this supplementary aid as needed rather than only for specific costs.

“This legislation did not have a fiscal impact on the state, did not impact private schools, provided local control to districts that received ESA funds and was a WIN/WIN for legislators,” Stender wrote. “Even more disappointing is the potential changes to SAVE funds as the legislature attempts to claw back these promised and valuable resources from schools to provide property tax relief.”

While proposed changes to the Secure an Advanced Vision for Education fund are aimed at decreasing property taxes for Iowans, Stender said the changes would result in $1.8 million less revenue for the district over the next 10 years.

Outside of legislation, the district was hoping to increase revenue through shared services with other school districts. The district already shares the positions of human resources officer and special education director with the Lenox school district, bringing more than $70,000 back to the district. However, attempts to share the superintendent position with area school districts has fallen flat.

“We reached out to several districts over the course of the last couple of months to see about sharing superintendent. Unfortunately, for a variety of different reasons, no districts are willing to share a superintendent,” Stender said. “Largely it is because we are the biggest school district in the region and there’s a fear of the larger school districts consuming the smaller school districts. And that’s not the case and that’s not our interest at all either.”

As the district continues to look at various funding and budgetary options, progress to approve the 2026-27 budget carries on. The first of two public hearings on the proposed budget was held during the March board meeting, with no oral or written objections. The second public hearing is scheduled for the April board meeting on Monday, April 20, at 5:30 p.m.

In other school board news...

Stender shared recent adjustments the district has made on to work on behavioral issues at the schools.

“This year alone, we did add an additional two positions. We added a behavior specialist through the AEA,” Stender said. “We provided another support structure for early childhood, probably pre-K through third grade, where the children experiencing behavior issues are being managed in the system, not through the behavior health sciences, but through a way to assist them so they’re not disruptive in the classroom.”

He said the district is also hoping to add a third position soon through federal dollars, though no other details were given.

The school board approved a three-year agreement with local business Jim’s Sanitation to continue providing sanitation services to the school district.

The board approved the following list of March 2026 contracts and resignations:

Contracts: Dalton Gross, boys assistant soccer coach; Sandra Buchanan, paraprofessional.

Resignations: Rebecca Mason, paraprofessional; Ariel Brewer, paraprofessional; Andrea Ramirez, paraprofessional; Sandra Buchanan, paraprofessional; Peg Eblen, school newspaper; Alex Tameruis, assistant football coach; Chad Needham, assistant football coach; Ron Pendegraft, bowling coach; Scott Wagner, 9th grade girls basketball coach; Carmalee Woods, 7th grade volleyball coach; Todd Jacobson, 8th grade girls basketball head coach; Payton Pryor, boys assistant soccer coach, Lindsey Fosse, 1st grade teacher (as of end of 25-26 school year).