Deer Park and Riverside school districts both failed to pass their levies this month, a result that could have devastating consequences for their budgets. (Money from levies and levy-equalization money makes up about 30 percent of the Deer Park school district's budget, and 22 percent of Riverside's budget.)
Fortunately, they have one more chance: On April 17, both school districts get one more shot.
This time, they hope things will be different. Riverside had attempted to pass two levies at the same time — a capital levy and a maintenance and operations levy — and it failed to get even 40 percent support from voters.
But this time Roberta Kramer, superintendent of the Riverside, says the district will only run one levy — the maintenance and operations levy at $3.42 per $1,000 of assessed value — and worry about capital projects later.
Becky Cooke, superintendent of the Deer Park, says that thanks to a new assessed value of properties in the area, the language on the rerun levy will say $2.46 per $1,000 instead of $259.
This time, she's confident the community, posed with devastating budget cuts, will pass it.
"We’d passed levies for so many years, I’m not sure all of our voters got their levies in the mail this time," Cooke says. "I don’t think people realized it would be that close."