District voters approve school levy

Libby area voters Tuesday narrowly approved a ballot measure authorizing a five-year, $4.1 million building reserve levy. The levy will increase annual property taxes by approximately $97.20 per $100,000 of market value during the five-year levy period.

“I want to thank everyone who came out and voted,” said Libby Public Schools superintendent Craig Barringer. “This money will help keep our buildings going for another 15 to 20 years and it sends a sign to the rest of the state and the world that Libby is open for business.”

During the campaign, opponents argued the area’s depressed economy made the levy an unreasonable extra burden for taxpayers already struggling to get by. They also argued a number of the items on the schools’ repair list were not necessary elements for the education of Libby’s children.

Barringer defended the items on the list.

“We focused on the most necessary repair and improvement items,” Barringer said. “There were a number of projects we want to do but eliminated from this levy because they’re not as high of a priority. The most important thing is our infrastructure. We needed to make sure our buildings will still be standing in another 20 years.”

The biggest item on the school’s list of repair projects is to replace the roofs on the elementary school, middle/high school and Central School. The district has estimated the cost of roof replacement for the three buildings at slightly more than $1.6 million. Another $700,000 has been estimated to replace floor tiles in the school buildings, many of which have been worn down to the point of exposing sub-floor. All of the district’s buildings currently have mis-matched floors where tiles have been swapped out over the decades and matching tiles were no longer available.

The heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system is another of the larger ticket items on the list, with an estimated cost of $1,075,000. The HVAC system currently in place is roughly 46 years old and parts to maintain and repair it are no longer available. Barringer said maintenance personnel have scavenged parts from some units in order to keep others working, but over time the system has become dilapidated to the point of no longer functioning properly.

Other items on the school’s priority list include repairing and replacing sidewalks, replacing the speaker systems in the elementary and middle/high school gymnasiums, replacing the gym floors in both schools, replacing the middle/high school lockers, resurfacing the elementary school parking lot and repairing an unsafe culvert at the elementary school.

The district will begin work on the highest-priority items immediately after the end of the school year. Those projects include the preliminary work on the roofs and the resurfacing of the elementary parking lot. 

Barringer said the district will continue to operate with the same fiscal discipline they’ve shown in the past, and promised to keep the public apprised of the status of the repair projects.

“We operate at about 90 percent of what the state allows,” Barringer said. “We go through annual audits and those reports have shown, historically, that Libby schools take excellent care of the public’s money and only spend what we need to deliver quality education to our community’s children. And we’d like to thank the voters of the Libby area for continuing to place their trust in us and support us in the education of our children.”